A recent study by WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine student Gisella Logioia and in collaboration with WSU Sleep and Performance Research Center faculty Devon Hansen, PhD, and Courtney Kurinec, PhD, explores how sleep deprivation affects decision-making in individuals with chronic insomnia.
Published in Sleep Advances, the study investigated the impact of total sleep deprivation on adaptive decision-making using a task that required participants to adjust when rules changed unexpectedly. Researchers compared individuals with chronic insomnia to healthy sleepers to determine whether insomnia alters cognitive responses to sleep loss.
Twenty-eight participants completed a five-day, four-night laboratory protocol. Some underwent 38 hours of total sleep deprivation, while others maintained a normal sleep schedule. Decision-making performance was assessed at baseline and during sleep deprivation.
Results showed that sleep deprivation significantly impaired decision-making overall, particularly after task rules changed. While both healthy sleepers and individuals with insomnia performed worse when sleep-deprived, participants with insomnia demonstrated relatively preserved performance before rule changes.
Researchers suggest this pattern may be linked to hyperarousal, a hallmark of chronic insomnia, which could provide short-term protection against certain cognitive effects of sleep loss. These findings offer new insight into how insomnia influences decision-making under fatigue and may inform future research on cognitive function in sleep disorders.