The Effect of Partial and Chronic Sleep Deprivation on Working Memory and Attention in Emergency Medicine Interns

  Sleep is an organized behavior that is repeated every day as a vital necessity based on the biological rhythm. Sleep deprivation is known as one of the major problems that can cause functional impairment in individuals. Therefore, it is expected that sleep deprivation in interns also causes problems in their performance. According to the importance of cognitive health in health care workers, we decided to study the effects of partial and chronic sleep deprivation on attention and working memory in the emergency medicine interns in Yazd University of Medical Sciences. The number of 50 emergency medicine interns were randomly selected and their demographic information was entered the data collection form. The subjects were examined before and after the one-month period of the shift work. Working memory and attention in participants were compared with the application of working memory and attention tests in 2-time points. Finally, the collected data were entered the SPSS software version 16 and statistical tests were performed subsequently. The results showed that there is no significant difference between the mean of direct and reverse auditory working memory, direct and reverse visual working memory, as well as the divided attention of participants before and after the one-month period of the shift work, but there was a significant difference between the average of selective attention of participants before and after the one-month period of the shift work (P value < 0.05). Also, this study showed that, regardless of the effect of sleep deprivation, the mean of divided attention and working memory are different between males and females. According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that the type of sleep deprivation in the emergency medicine interns only reduces the selective attention and this effect was not dependent on the gender.