Sleep to see - Does total sleep deprivation affect conscious processing?

In team sports, spectators might sometimes wonder how the player in ball possession
missed passing the ball to a much better-positioned teammate, particularly
when the latter appeared to be clearly visible for the player in ball possession. Such
instances can often be attributed to the phenomenon of inattentional blindness,
wherein individuals fail to consciously perceive unexpected objects while their attention
is focused elsewhere (Mach & Rock, 1998). One approach to face such instances
of inattentional blindness might be sufficient pre-competition sleep, as sleep deprivation
has been shown to impair basic cognitive functions such as vigilance and attention
(Leong & Chee, 2023). However, it remains unclear whether sleep deprivation
affects the conscious perception of unexpected objects. We hypothesized that one
night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) might result in higher rates of inattentional
blindness, given that TSD reduces neuronal activity in areas responsible for visual information
processing (Tomasi et al., 2009). Thus, we investigated the impact of total
sleep deprivation on inattentional blindness using a between-group design. A total
of 82 athletes (M = 22.5 years, SD = 2.5 years) were divided into two groups, with one
group undergoing 24 hours of sleep deprivation before performing an inattentional
blindness task, while the other group received a sufficient night of sleep. Contrary to
our expectations, one night of total sleep deprivation did not affect the probability
of detecting unexpected objects. These findings suggest that sleep deprivation may
lead to minor effects on cognitive functions, such as delayed responses, but that it
does not necessarily influence whether a stimulus is consciously perceived or not.
We will discuss the implications of these findings for athletic performance and in
light of the general inattentional blindness literature.