How Does Sleep Affect Cognitive Performance?

In the present study we sought to characterize abnormalities in sleep architecture and quality, in a cohort of patients with medically refractory versus and controlled epilepsy, versus normal healthy controls and to study the effect of sleep parameters on cognitive function in these groups. The main observations made were of significantly longer self-reported and polysomnographic TST in patients with refractory epilepsy in comparison to controlled epilepsy and healthy controls. Sleep architecture was also found to be markedly disturbed among epilepsy patients in both groups, with prolonged REM latencies, and frequent arousals and awakenings although these abnormalities were statistically similar between the groups. Our main observation is that higher total sleep time has a negative correlation with memory and executive function performance.

Sleep is essential for optimal human function. In fact, a lack of sleep can actually affect important cognitive functions, like memory. A 2007 study added to the already substantial evidence that even acute total sleep deprivation impairs attentiveness, working memory, and reaction time in various tasks (Alhola, Polo-Kantola). One such way to further this investigation of the effects of sleep deprivation on memory is through the Memory Interference Test, or MIT. MIT is a program designed by Gaston Pfluegl, Ph.D., and Enrique Lopez, Psy. D., at UCLA to test the memory of students. Along with a memory test, the MIT also anonymously collected the physical states, mental states, and demographics of each student test subject, providing a substantial database through which students can test hypotheses, such as the connection between sleep deprivation and memory. Since the MIT requires short-term memory recall, the hours of sleep a student had before taking the test could have a noticeable effect on his or her performance. An unprecedented study this year found that sleep deprivation may actually even induce false memories, which would certainly impact a student taking the MIT because the test requires the subject to recognize images that have been previously presented to them (Frenda, et al). The hypothesis is that students who slept 8 hours before the test will perform better on the MIT than students who only slept 4 hours. The null hypothesis is that students who had adequate

The performance Triad is as it sounds made up of three separate but interchangeable parts that are intended for the military services to utilize to enhance their combat readiness. It consists of Physical Fitness, Nutrition and Sleep and I will quickly explain each aspect to give the reader an understanding of what it is. I will also explain why I believe sleep to be the most crucial and important part of the Performance Triad and lastly looking at ways to implement the Performance Triad for soldiers that are in a field environment.

How often do you hear people complain about being tired all the time? Sleep deficiency has been investigated for years, but there has been no single method to explain why people nod their heads asleep in crucial times focus: during an important class lecture or even at the wheel. However, it is clear that without a good night’s rest, sleep-deprived individuals can find it difficult to pay attention, even if they want to stay awake. Thus, it becomes important to examine the underlying mechanisms that explain the negative effects of sleep loss on attention and cognitive performance. Sleep effects can be measured by alertness, which describes the overall state of the cognitive system and can be attributed to two primary components: a circadian system and a sleep homeostasis system (Åkerstedt & Folkard, 1995). The circadian system is composed of an oscillating 24-hour cycle that fluctuates in alertness throughout one day, while the homeostasis system is a gradual decline of alertness as wake time increases throughout the day, only recovering after sleep (Achermann, 2004). Attention is facilitated by alertness and is the behavioral and cognitive process of focusing on one piece of information at a time. Although it is a broad phenomenon, it can be divided into two components: vigilant attention and selective attention. Vigilant attention is a person’s ability to keep concentrating on one task, while selective attention is a person’s ability to focus distinctly on one stimuli to

Many individuals in our society struggle from lack of sleep from various different problems. In order to understand the reason why this is a problem I examined the circadian clock and how Melatonin fits in the natural “day/night” cycle and affects human sleeping patterns. Various studies using individuals with either insomnia, stressed college students or a history of sleep disorders measured the initial sleep disturbance patterns. The researchers performed double blind studies with both placebo and Melatonin in order to determine whether an external source of Melatonin helped with sleeping patterns to follow

Sleep duration and quality participate in normal metabolism, function of immune system, mood, and cognitive functioning [1]. Short duration of sleep and circadian misalignment are hypothesized to contribute to many problems of health including over weight, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiac disease, mood disorders, cognitive dysfunction, and

One aspect of this research also included how sleep deprivation can affect academic performance. It is has been proven many times and with a variety of studies that sleep deprivation negatively impacts academic performance. The implication is that if these students are staying up later, their grades should be suffering. There are direct connections between rapid eye

For this study, 25 people with and 25 people without sleep problems were tested on overnight sleep patterns and working memory tasks. During the overnight sleep period, the group with insomnia got about 6 hours of sleep and the group without insomnia averaged 7 hours. The memory task occurred while the brain was being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). People with insomnia showed less activity in working memory regions and people without showed more. As the task got harder, people without insomnia showed more activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and less for people with insomnia (Rettner,2013). With the increased difficulty of the tasks, the group without were able to control their mind wandering and the group with insomnia were not

A recent news article on CNN, Lack of Sleep May Shrink Your Brain, cites a research study suggesting that insomnia and other reasons for sleep deprivation may reduce brain mass. Although the study was correlational, the author of the news article focuses mostly on one of the three possible relations between sleep and brain mass: lack of sleep may cause shrinking of the brain. Only at the end of article, the author mentions that shrinking of the brain may cause lack of sleep, but completely disregards the third possibility that a third variable may cause both the shrinking of the brain and lack of sleep.

Sleeping affects the brain in ways that cannot be achieved by any other method, at least naturally. Lack of sleep is consistent with “higher levels of depressed mood, fatigue, and sleepiness,” which is observable in any person, but this trend is especially more true for adolescents, because of their developing brain and increased workload. (Fuligni, 2006) Students around the age of fourteen and fifteen are transitioning from middle school into high school and are forced to interrupt their previously set daily circadian due to earlier and later school obligations as well as increased socializing, after-school studying and extracurricular activities. The student’s home life and upbringing can play a large part in their mental health and even

Sleep is vital to give the cerebral cortex (the brain's "thinking" part) a rest. When we’re in a deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) occurs when your eyes move rapidly up for 30 minutes at a time, it continues every 90 minutes. Most of our dreaming happens during REM and our eyes moving forcefully, our bodies are very relaxed and that’s what make us continue to sleep. “One of the most recent and compelling explanations for why we sleep is based on findings that sleep is correlated to changes in the structure and organization of the brain. this phenomenon, known as brain plasticity, is not connection to sleep has several plays a critical implications. it is becoming clear, that sleep plays a critical role in brain development in infants and

The chemical blockage is how you’re able to dream about doing things, but you don’t actually move and act it out in your sleep. There are disorders, however, that cause people to sleep differently than what is deemed “normal.” Such a thing would be atopia, where people act out their dreams while sleeping (Stevens, 2011). They can also sleepwalk or wake up from sleeping but not be able to move although your conscious but their body is not yet ready to move.

The impact of sleep behavior on memory recall is a new topic in psychology study field, but the result of this research will help many researches in the future. Sleep not only brings people physiologically relax but also improve people’s ability on memory recall. 300 undergraduate students in UW participated in an experiment about memory recall test (recall a list of words). The text result and later analysis showed that, after sleeping, students tend to gain higher score in their memory recall test. Students who take a nap(sleep group) before take the memory test have an average 4.5 points higher than students who do not(non-sleep group). The relationship between sleep and memory recall is significant, and p-value is also smaller than 0.01.

Many people don’t understand how important sleep is. “One aspect of brain health that has been well examined through neuroimaging and cognitive testing is the influence of sleep on the brain. The findings are indeed a wake up call with regard to the impact on focus memory, test performance, mood, and high risk behaviors.”(Willis 1). Throughout

Sleep is a complex cycle generated by the brain that consists of 24 hours of regulated wake and sleep stages. This cycle is called the circadian rhythm which is mostly stable, but can be altered by light and individual differences; the individual differences are classified as an either/or dichotomy: you’re a morning person, or you are a not a morning person (Kalat 2013). In normal individuals, sleep is an automatic process; we can fight against it for a while, but eventually the sleep cycle will restore itself, causing the individual to fall asleep at inappropriate times, like during the middle of a lecture, driving down the highway, or while operating heavy machinery. To understand why the circadian rhythm works so hard to stay regulated requires knowledge about the way sleep works and its adaptive