Sleep pressure and time perception in university students

Abstract

Here we aimed to investigate the association between poor quality of sleep, sleep debt during weekdays and the performance on an interval timing task, using the method of production of time and consisting on five sessions a day for nine days. The sleep of our volunteers was particularly restricted on weekdays. Moreover, later chronotype was associated with the need for compensation on weekends. Regarding the production of time, produced durations were consistently over-produced and there was an evident increase in the mean coefficient of variation (CV) from the wake-up morning to afternoon sessions, followed by a sharp decrease in the evening sessions. Importantly, CV was mainly determined by the interaction between MSFdiff, sleep duration on weekdays and age. In conclusion, our results indicate that when university students are under the effects of social jet lag and reduced sleep duration during weekdays, their performance in interval timing tasks may be compromised.

Keywords:

• Interval timing
• time production
• sleep deprivation
• social jet lag
• chronotype
• cognitive performance

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the financial support from FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo), CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) and Capes (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior).