Author(s): CIORCIARI, A.M., MULÈ, A., GALASSO, L., CASTELLI, L., ROVEDA, E., ESPOSITO, F., MONTARULI, A., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF MILAN, Country: ITALY, Abstract-ID: 376

INTRODUCTION:
Balance can be defined as the ability of integrating vestibular, somatosensory, and visual afferents to maintain the body’s center of gravity within the limits of stability. It depends on several factors, and many of them are closely related to the circadian preferences of the subject and to their rest-activity rhythm. Chronic poor sleep habits can worsen postural control, and recent studies have shown some effects, although controversial, also in acute (1). The aim of this study was to verify by an objective sleep and balance assessment whether the sleep of the night before the test can affect postural control.
METHODS:
Forty-eight subjects (males = 24; females = 24; age = 22.1±3.2; BMI = 22.2±2.3) were recruited for this study. They underwent the modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction in Balance (2), able to discriminate the vestibular, proprioceptive, and visual balance components through a stabilometric platform by four different experimental conditions: eyes open on a rigid surface, eyes closed on a rigid surface, eyes open on a soft surface, eyes closed on a soft surface. Subjects had to wear an actigraph the night before the tests, which were performed at two different times of the day, at 09:00 AM and at 06:00 PM. Based on actigraph data and National Sleep Foundation cut-offs, participants were categorized as Bad Sleepers (BS = 5), Good Sleepers (GS = 17), and Intermediate Sleepers (IS = 26).
RESULTS:
The results show that BS had a very higher Oscillation Index than both IS and GS (p = 0.01) in the PM session, while IS and GS showed no difference.
CONCLUSION:
It seems that bad sleep, also in acute, can heavily affect balance in its vestibular component, mainly during the afternoon. These findings can be useful to better understand the physiological relationship between sleep and balance, and may open a new approach to injury prevention in athletes and risk of fall in the elderly.

(1) Fullagar, H. H. K., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A. J., & Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and Athletic Performance: The Effects of Sleep Loss on Exercise Performance, and Physiological and Cognitive Responses to Exercise. Sports Medicine, 45(2), 161–186.
(2) Dawson N, Dzurino D, Karleskint M, & Tucker J (2018). Examining the reliability, correlation, and validity of commonly used assessment tools to measure balance. Health Science Reports, 1(12).