SUMMAR Y The study had two primary objectives. The first was to determine whether sleep loss results in a preference for tasks demanding minimal effort. The second was to evaluate the quality of performance when participants, under conditions of sleep loss, have control over task demands. In experiment 1, using a repeated-measures design, 50 undergraduate college students were evaluated, following one night of no sleep loss and one night of sleep loss. The Math Effort Task (MET) presented addition problems via computer. Participants were able to select additions at one of five levels of difficulty.Less-demanding problems were selected and more additions were solved correctly when the participants were subject to sleep loss. In experiment 2, 58 undergraduate college students were randomly assigned to a no sleep deprivation or a sleep deprivation condition. Sleep-deprived participants selected less-demanding problems on the MET. Percentage correct on the MET was equivalent for both the non-sleep-deprived and sleep-deprived groups. On a task selection question, the sleep-deprived participants also selected significantly less-demanding non-academic tasks. Increased sleepiness, fatigue, and reaction time were associated with the selection of less difficult tasks. Both groups of participants reported equivalent effort expenditures; sleep-deprived participants did not perceive a reduction in effort. These studies demonstrate that sleep loss results in the choice of low-effort behavior that helps maintain accurate responding.k e y w o r d s effort,

Sleep loss appears to affect the capacity for performance and access to energetic resources. This paper reviews research examining the physical substrates referred to as resource capacity, the role of sleep in protecting that capacity and the reaction of the system as it attempts to respond with effort to overcome the limitations on capacity caused by sleep loss. Effort is the extent to which an organism will exert itself beyond basic levels of functioning or attempt alternative strategies to maintain performance. The purpose of this review is to bring together research across sleep disciplines to clarify the substrates that constitute and influence capacity for performance, consider how the loss of sleep influences access to those resources, examine cortical, physiological, perceptual, behavioral and subjective effort responses and consider how these responses reflect a system reacting to changes in the resource environment. When sleep deprived, the ability to perform tasks that require additional energy is impaired and the ability of the system to overcome the deficiencies caused by sleep loss is limited. Taking on tasks that require effort including school work, meal preparation, pulling off the road to nap when driving drowsy appear to be more challenging during sleep loss. Sleep loss impacts the effort-related choices we make and those choices may influence our health and safety.

Behavioral treatments were evaluated for their effect on the subjective and objective sleep of older adult insomniacs (N = 53) aged 47 to 76 years. Conditions were support and sleep hygiene, support and sleep hygiene plus progressive relaxation, support and sleep hygiene plus stimulus control, or a measurement control group. The results indicated that all groups, including the measurement control group, were effective in improving the sleep diary assessed awakenings, naptime, and feeling refreshed upon awakening. Subjects at 3 weeks felt less depressed and felt that they had more control over their sleep. Stimulus control was most effective in improving sleep at the posttherapy period. A 2‐year follow‐up showed that the stimulus control subjects most frequently used the treatment instructions and had shorter sleep latencies and highest sleep quality. Behavioral treatments were found to be effective in improving the perception of sleep among older adult insomniacs.

Adolescents' sleep and next day effort was studied in 18 female competitive adolescent athletes. A subjective assessment of the previous night's sleep, their perception of the difficulty of the choices offered and the difficulty of tasks selected was completed before routine lessons. Sleep amount was related to the perception of the difficulty of the task, while awakenings were related to an avoidance of the least preferred maneuvers. Individuals who experienced the greatest number of awakenings and most time awake at night were more likely to select the least difficult of these tasks. Sleep disturbance in adolescence may magnify the challenges they experience and cause them to underestimate their ability to meet those challenges.

Objectives This study investigated the effects of sleep deprivation on perception of task difficulty and use of heuristics (mental shortcuts) compared to naturally-experienced sleep at home. Methods: Undergraduate students were screened and assigned through block-random assignment to Naturally-Experienced Sleep (NES; n=19) or Total Sleep Deprivation (TSD; n=20). The next morning, reported fatigue, perception of task difficulty, and use of “what-is-beautiful-is-good,” “greedy algorithm,” and “speed-accuracy trade-off” heuristics were assessed. Results: NES slept for an average of 354.74 minutes (SD=72.84), or 5.91 hours. TSD rated a reading task as significantly more difficult and requiring more time than NES. TSD was significantly more likely to use the greedy algorithm heuristic by skipping instructions and the what-is-beautiful-is-good heuristic by rating an unattractive consumer item with a favorable review as poor quality. Those in Total Sleep Deprivation who chose more difficult math problems made this selection to finish the task more quickly in findings approaching significance, indicating use of the speed-accuracy trade-off heuristic. Collapsed across conditions, self-reported fatigue predicted greater perceived difficulty in both the reading task and a visuo-motor task, higher quality rating for the attractive consumer item, and lower quality rating for the unattractive consumer item. Conclusions: Findings indicate sleep deprivation and fatigue increase perceptions of task difficulty, promote skipping instructions, and impair systematic evaluation of unappealing stimuli compared to naturally-experienced sleep.

Studies on sexual behavior frequently require that subject volunteers engage in intrusive/sensitive assessment procedures. While earlier investigators have found that these demands may result in volunteer bias (volunteers differing from nonvolunteers), these studies were limited to nonclinical samples. The present study involved 182 males admitted to an inpatient alcoholism rehabilitation program. Those patients who volunteered to participate in an intrusive study examining sexual functioning were dissimilar to nonvolunteers. Compared to nonvolunteers, volunteers reported a greater interest in sex, less satisfaction with sex, more concerns about sexual functioning, a greater incidence of premature ejaculation, and a greater incidence of negative sexual experience. Volunteers also had a higher MAST score, used outpatient substance-abuse counseling more often, and more frequently had a diagnosis of cocaine/amphetamine dependence and cannabis dependence. These differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers suggest a need to use caution when generalizing the results of similar studies to the overall population. Procedures that may help to minimize volunteer bias are offered.

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