Sleep deprivation

Maths

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The Task

The subjects were given a test paper to fill in consisting of 20 adding and subtracting problems. The subjects were asked to fill in the answers as accurately and as quickly as possible. Two matched tests were used; One for each day.

Results

The average number of correct answers increased by 1, from 17.6 (before sleep deprivation) to 18.6 (after). This was found to be significant using the Wilcoxon T test (T=42, N=19, p less than 0.05, 2-tailed).

A control group of non-sleep-deprived subjects were tested twice, 24 hours apart. The average number of correct answers on the first day was 18.8, and 19 on the second day. This difference was not significant.

There was no significant difference between the time taken to complete the twenty questions before sleep deprivation compared with after. The average time taken before was 132 seconds before and 123 seconds after.

Averages
	Before	After
Time (Seconds)	132	123
Number correct	17.6	18.6

Both before and after sleep deprivation there was a significant negative correlation between the number of questions solved correctly and the time taken to solve them. Before Pearson's r=-0.49, N-2=25, p=0.01, 2-tailed. After Pearson's r=-0.42, N-2=25, p less than 0.05, 2-tailed.

Research conducted by Vicky Purser

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Gary Sturt
sturtg@colchsfc.ac.uk