Effect of sleep deprivation on diurnal variation of vertical perception and postural control

The aim of the study was to test the effect of total sleep deprivation on performance and time-of-day pattern of subjective visual vertical (SVV) and postural control. Nineteen healthy, young participants (4 women and 15 men 21.9 ± 1.2 yr) were engaged in two counterbalanced experimental sessions with or without total sleep deprivation. Oral temperature, Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, and visual analogic scale for fatigue, postural control, and SVV were randomly measured every 4 h, from 0600 to 2200. A linear mixed model was used to capture the effect of time of day and sleep condition as factors. A classical adjusted COSINOR function was then used to modelize this daily variation. After the control night of sleep, SVV as well as oral temperature, sleepiness, and fatigue showed significant time-of-day variation, contrasting with measures of postural control which remained stable across the day. After sleep deprivation, SVV showed no diurnal variation, but its mean deviation value increased by 29%. Postural control capability also decreased after sleep deprivation, with a higher center of pressure surface (+70.4%) and total length (+7.37%) but remained stable throughout the day. These results further confirm the negative effect of sleep loss on postural control capability. Even if a direct relationship cannot be confirmed, the disruption of SVV capacity after sleep deprivation could strongly play a role in postural control capacity changes. Sleep deprivation should be considered as a potent factor involved in balance loss and subsequent fall. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The topic of sleep deprivation and postural control is not understood, with discrepancy among results. This study described that postural control displays a stable level throughout the day and that sleep deprivation, even if it increases postural sway, does not affect this stable diurnal pattern. The modification of the perception of the vertical level after sleep deprivation could strongly play a role in the observed changes in postural control capacity.