NMRL Authors Sleep Article

 

Dr. Chris Connaboy, his current doctoral students Alice LaGoy and Aaron Sinnott, former doctoral students Dr. Shawn Eagle (UPMC) and Dr. Caleb Johnson (Harvard), and Pitt Department of Psychiatry faculty member Dr. Fabio Ferrarelli published the review article You Snooze, You Win? An Ecological Dynamics Framework Approach to Understanding the Relationships Between Sleep and Sensorimotor Performance in Sport in a special issue of Sleep Medicine Clinics titled Sleep and Performance. Decades of research using laboratory-based assessments have identified sleep-related performance decrements across different domains of cognitive function. Recent work has demonstrated similar performance decrements in clinical, sport and military operational settings highlighting the real-world implications of inadequate sleep. The review article defines sensorimotor performance from an ecological dynamics perspective and discusses sleep-related changes in sensorimotor performance. Both, the role of sleep loss in compromising sensorimotor performance and the role of specific sleep features in enhancing sensorimotor performance are described. Altogether, the article provides a framework for understanding the implications of sleep-related changes in sensorimotor performance within operational and athletic settings.