Shorter reported sleep duration in men is associated with worse virtual spatial navigation performance

Sleep has been shown to impact navigation ability. However, it remains unclear how different sleep-related variables may be independently associated with spatial navigation performance, and as to whether gender may play a role in these associations. We used a mobile video game app, Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), to measure wayfinding ability in US-based participants. Wayfinding performance on SHQ has been shown to correlate with real-world wayfinding. Participants were asked to report their sleep duration, quality, daytime sleepiness and nap frequency and duration (n = 737, 409 men, 328 women, mean age = 27.1 years, range = 18-59 years). A multivariate linear regression was used to identify which sleep variables were independently associated with wayfinding performance. For men, longer sleep durations were associated with better wayfinding performance. For women, no such association was found. While other sleep variables showed trends of association with wayfinding performance, none of these were significantly associated with wayfinding performance in our regression model. These findings from younger U.S.-based participants suggest that a longer sleep duration may be an important contributor to successful navigation ability in men. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.