Effect of time of day and partial sleep deprivation on the reaction time and the attentional capacities of the handball goalkeeper

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the time of day and partial sleep deprivation on cognitive performances (i.e., attention and reaction time [RT]) of the handball goalkeeper (GK). The protocol involved 12 healthy GK volunteer males (age: 18.5 +/- 1.7 years, level of experience: 8.3 +/- 2.4 years, height: 1.80 +/- 5.8 cm; body-mass: 79 +/- 4.2 kg). They performed three cognitive tasks, i.e. the RT test, the Stroop test, and the barrage test, respectively, to evaluate the RT, the selective attention (SA), and the constant attention (CA) following the two situations of partial sleep deprivation, i.e. in the beginning (SDB) and the end (SDE) of the night, and a reference night which is a full night of habitual sleep. Resting oral temperature was measured at the beginning of each test session. Each of the three experimental conditions was separated by a 72-h period. The analysis of variance revealed a significant sleep deprivation x test-time effect on the RT, the SA, and the CA. These variables decreased significantly from morning to afternoon for all three experimental conditions. It seems that the RT is more affected by SDE than SDB (p < 0.05; -41% vs. 49% after SDE and SDB, respectively); however, SA and CA are more affected by SDB than SDE (p < 0.05; 63% vs. 47% for SA and 39% vs. 29% for CA after SDB and SDE, respectively). Furthermore, the partial sleep deprivation causes a phase advance of the core temperature. In addition, cognitive performances are not in phase with the rhythm of core temperature for all three experimental conditions. In conclusion, the partial sleep deprivation negatively affect cognitive performances in the handball goalkeeper.