The Effects of Distorted Visual Input on Sleep

Abstract

ABSTRACT An experiment in which 3 subjects wore prism lenses, which rotated the visual environment through 90 degrees and reversed right‐left the visual field, was carried out to investigate whether visual distortion would affect sleep. An initial 2 laboratory adaptation nights, 6 pre‐experimental days wearing heavy spectacles of plain glass that restricted the visual field but did not distort it, followed by 6 experimental days wearing distorting prisms, and then 6 post‐experimental days with no spectacles, were consecutive. All‐night sleep recordings were performed. Sleep parameters remained within normal limits during the 18‐day period and there was no change in % REM sleep, or eye movement profusion, despite the fact that performance tasks confirmed that learning to cope with the disorted visual world took place. The latency to the first REM period, the % of stages 3 and 4 sleep, and the amount of REM sleep in the first 2 hrs of sleep were unaffected. There was a tendency toward greater intra‐sleep restlessness. Results did not confirm the report of Zimmerman, Stoyva, and Metealf (1970). The results should not, however, be taken as providing positive evidence against links between learning, cerebral protein synthesis, and REM sleep.