Increased impulsivity in response to food cues after sleep loss in healthy young men

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether acute total sleep deprivation (TSD) leads to decreased cognitive control when food cues are presented during a task requiring active attention, by assessing the ability to cognitively inhibit prepotent responses. METHODS: Fourteen males participated in the study on two separate occasions in a randomized, crossover within-subject design: one night of TSD versus normal sleep (8.5 hours). Following each nighttime intervention, hunger ratings and morning fasting plasma glucose concentrations were assessed before performing a go/no-go task. RESULTS: Following TSD, participants made significantly more commission errors when they were presented “no-go” food words in the go/no-go task, as compared with their performance following sleep (+56%; P<0.05). In contrast, response time and omission errors to “go” non-food words did not differ between the conditions. Self-reported hunger after TSD was increased without changes in fasting plasma glucose. The increase in hunger did not correlate with the TSD-induced commission errors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that TSD impairs cognitive control also in response to food stimuli in healthy young men. Whether such loss of inhibition or impulsiveness is food cue-specific as seen in obesity—thus providing a mechanism through which sleep disturbances may promote obesity development—warrants further investigation.