Neural correlates of the efficiency of psychomotor activity recovery following short sleep episodes

Objective measures of activity recovery performance in monotonous psychomotor task after brief episodes of daytime sleep were investigated. We used a psychomotor test in which the partially sleep-deprived subjects had to press the button 10 times with alternating left and right hands for 70 min. The task-induced short episodes of sleep, after which subjects had to resume the task. EEG of the anterior and central lead areas was studied when resuming the task after awakening from the first stage of sleep. We compared the situations of resumption of the pattern with left and right hands. The power of beta- and gamma-EEG oscillations during preparation and beginning of psychomotor activity was found to be higher when the subject starts to press the button with the left (nondominant) hand which may be a manifestation of sleep inertia. We attribute this to the fact that in this case the strategy for resuming activity interrupted by the short sleep is suboptimal and energy intensive, requiring greater cognitive activity. We also assume that this situation is preceded by a lower level of consciousness, in which the subject correctly remembers the instruction, but does reliably start with the dominant hand. However, the subject fully recovers and correctly performs the motor and synchronized cognitive account task immediately after awakening. This study contributes to an objective assessment of fluctuations in the human condition in monotonous work, which can lead to loss of concentration, reduced response time, drowsiness and negatively affect work safety.