Although there have been many studies of the effect upon performance of one or more days of complete sleep deprivation, there appear to be no satisfactory data upon the effect of a single night of reduced sleep. There are two main reasons for this: either the scale of the experiment precluded the use of sufficient Ss (Smith, 1916; Husband,1935) or insensitive performance tasks were used (Webb & Agnew, 1965). The present study has sought to remedy these defects. MethodSix enlisted men carried out performance tests from 8 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. (with relatively short breaks for meals) on the Wednesday and Thursday of six successive weeks. On each of the nights preceding the days oftestingtheysiepteitherO,l,2, 3, 5, or 7-1/2 hr. according to the week of testing. Thus by the end of the sixth week each S had met each of these conditions of sleep, the order of their presentation being randomized among Ss with the constraint that on any given night each of the Ss received different amounts of sleep. Where sleep was taken Ss were always wakened at 6:30 A.M., the partial sleep deprivation being achieved by delaying their retirement to bed. They were under constant supervision, except when they were sleeping, from the morning of Tuesday until the end of their second testing day on Thursday. When not carrying out the

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