Sleep deprivation, effort allocation and performance

Sleep deprivation causes physiological alterations (e.g., decreased arousal, intrusion of micro-sleeps), that negatively affect performance on a wide range of cognitive domains. These effects indicate that cognitive performance relies on a capacity-limited system that may be more challenged in the absence of sleep. Additionally, sleep loss can result in a lower willingness to exert effort in the pursuit of performance goals. Such deficits in motivation may interact with the effects of capacity limitations to further stifle cognitive performance. When sleep-deprived, cognitive performance is experienced as more effortful, and intrinsic motivation to perform dwindles. On the other hand, increasing motivation extrinsically (e.g., by monetary incentives) can inspire individuals to allocate more task-related effort, and can partially counter performance deficits associated with sleep deprivation. In this chapter, we review current research on the interplay between sleep deprivation, effort and performance. We integrate these findings into an effort-based decision-making framework in which sleep-related performance impairments may result from a voluntary decision to withdraw effort. We conclude with practical implications of this framework for performance in healthy populations (e.g., work productivity) and clinical conditions.