Effect of 24-hrs of sleep deprivation on Central Auditory Processing in young people - A Quasi-Experimental study

Abstract

Background: Adequate amount of sleep is the basic need for survival. It is a well-known fact that disturbed sleep, acute or chronic, deteriorates the homeostasis. Sleep deprivation (SD) produces many adverse health consequences by affecting almost all the organ systems and their functions. However, sufficient literature was lacking on the effect of SD on central auditory processing (CAP), especially the temporal resolution component in young individuals.

Aims and Objective: Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of 24-hrs of sleep deprivation on the temporal resolution ability of young healthy night-shift employees.

Materials and Methods: It was a Pretest-posttest study design (Quasi-Experimental study) comprising sixty (N=60) healthy security staff. After the initial survey, Tuning fork tests and Pure Tone Audiometry were performed to rule out hearing loss. Temporal resolution was assessed twice (before and after SD) by Random Gap Detection test (RGDT) where a pair of pure tone was presented at different frequencies with ‘intervals of silence’ between each pair of tones and average time interval (in milliseconds) was taken. Data analysis was done by SPSS 24 software.

Results: There was an increase in RGDT values after sleep deprivation 10.70 ± 0.46 (Mean±SD), but the difference was not significant (p-value = 0.5172) when compared with baseline values 10.65 ± 0.48 (Mean±SD).

Conclusion: Based on the research findings, we conclude that 24-hours of acute sleep deprivation didn’t show any negative impact on the temporal resolution component of CAP mechanism in young, healthy individuals.