When lack of sleep takes its toll on communication: an assessment of pragmatic abilities in two children following sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation affects numerous cognitive processes. Children populations have not been studied thoroughly, with regard to the effect of sleep deprivation on communication abilities. In this study, we investigate the pragmatic competence following acute sleep deprivation. Two eleven-year-old boys were evaluated on their pragmatic ability before and following sleep deprivation. The conversations were video-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the CHAT conventions. The Pragmatic Evaluation Protocol Revised (PREP-R) was administered for the investigation of pragmatic ability. Both children demonstrated a significantly lower performance following acute sleep deprivation. Their specific pragmatic ability and grammatically-based pragmatic ability were impaired. The subjects were unable to use lexical, morphological and syntactic cohesion, and encountered difficulties in the interaction and the managing of pauses. Acute sleep deprivation affects pragmatic competence, mainly due to difficulties in alertness, attention, working memory, and executive dysfunction in general. Variability in the pragmatic ability of the two subjects implies that more studies, focused on the cognitive deficits after sleep deprivation can cast more light on the evaluation of pragmatic ability.