Short sleep duration is associated with adverse physical and mental events. However, it is quite challenging to objectively quantify its impact on human cognitive performance. Thus, we aim to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on physiological measures of emotional and attention regulation, in terms of recovery dynamics among sleep-deprived air force pilots. Ninety-one pilots participated in a sleep deprivation workshop held by an aeromedical center. The Auditory Sustained Attention Test (ASAT) and the Psychomotor Vigilance Test were applied to evaluate emotional and attention performance at baseline, post 24-h of sleep deprivation, following recovery of 3- and 8-h of sleep. Machine learning was used to predict the aerial professions based on the physiological measures. The results indicate that 24 h of sleep deprivation induced impairments in both attention and emotional regulation; however, while 3 h of sleep recovery have ameliorated emotional regulation and latency to response inhibition, attention performance required 8 h of sleep to ameliorate the observed 70% impairment. The physiologically measured adverse effects induced by sleep deprivation were distinctive among aerial professions, thus allowing machine learning prediction with high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. The effects of sleep-deprivation-induced fatigue were detected by the ASAT measures, which may be utilized as an objective, non-invasive physiological measure to quantify emotional and attention regulation. The ability to monitor sleep effects in a fast and accurate manner may be beneficial for the competence assessment of pilots and promote safety, and the differentiation across the aerial professions may potentially improve individual suitability assessment, together with the consequences of sleep deprivation.

Keywords: attention regulation; auditory sustained attention test; emotional regulation; fit‐to‐operate; physio‐marker; sleep deprivation.

© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Neuroscience Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

睡眠不足与不良的身体和精神事件相关。然而，客观量化其对人类认知表现的影响是非常具有挑战性的。因此，我们旨在通过恢复动力学研究睡眠剥夺对空军飞行员情绪调节和注意力调节生理指标的影响。91名飞行员参加了由航空医学中心组织的睡眠剥夺工作坊。使用听觉持续注意力测试（ASAT）和心理运动警觉性测试来评估基线水平、24小时睡眠剥夺后的以及3小时和8小时恢复期的情绪和注意力表现。利用机器学习根据生理指标预测空中职业。结果表明，24小时的睡眠剥夺导致了情绪调节和注意力调节功能受损；然而，在进行3小时的睡眠恢复后，虽然情绪调节和反应抑制延迟得到了改善，但需要8小时的睡眠才能将观察到的70%注意力表现下降改善过来。由睡眠不足引起的生理不良影响在不同的空中职业之间有所不同，这使得机器学习预测具有高度准确性、敏感性和特异性。通过ASAT指标检测到了睡眠剥夺导致的疲劳效应，这些可以作为量化情绪和注意调节的客观、非侵入性生理测量手段。能够快速准确地监测睡眠效果可能有利于飞行员能力评估，并促进安全；不同空中职业之间的区分可能会潜在地改善个体适应性评估以及睡眠不足的影响。

关键词：注意力调节；听觉持续注意力测试；情绪调节；适合操作；生理标志物；睡眠剥夺。

© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Neuroscience Research 出版方 Wiley Periodicals LLC.