Effects of sleep inertia on cognitive performance following a 1-hour nap

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a 1-h nap on subsequent performance in spatial memory (SM) and logical reasoning (LR) tasks. The objective was to evaluate the duration of the effects of sleep inertia (SI). The performance was measured in two independent groups of subjects. The 1-h nap took place at 00:00 h in group 1 and at 03:00 h in group 2. In each task, the experimental design comprised one no-nap condition in which subjects had no sleep before the night tests, and a nap condition that comprised the 1-h nap followed by the test sessions. To measure the duration of SI effects, the subjects were tested in two 30-min sessions and the data in each session were analysed in sub-units of time of 3 min each. In each task the results showed no effects on accuracy, and no circadian effects of napping were found. In each task, analyses of pooled data of the two groups showed that the performance in the 1-h nap condition exhibited significant reductions of speed immediately following awakening, when compared with no-nap, reflecting SI effects. In SM, the slowing lasted 24 min, and 27 min in LR. Practical implications of the results are discussed.     

De l'institutionnalisation d'une forme culturelle à la structuration de l'espace de formation professionnelle: le cas du cirque en France

In France, the institutionalization of circus, widely sustained by the state, has extended to circus schools, some of which having proposed an apprenticeship of the profession of artist. Here we study the effects of such an endeavor toward respectability of this cultural form on the professional socialization of the circus apprentices. We notice a dual structuration process of the space of apprenticeship from the top (the state) and the bottom (the schools). Given the early stage of this space, all the schools are gradually constrained by a rationale of permanent adjustment to the contest of the professional socialization.