Sleep

Summary and Support

• A study that examines the impact of normal sleep on auditory declarative memory among adolescents demonstrates the following:
  • An increase of 20.6% in declarative memory was observed among the subjects who procured sleep (as opposed to those who did not) prior to completing declarative and controlling memory tasks the following morning.
  • While the subjects’ declarative memory was enhanced, the control working memory did not show any significant improvement (compared to the working memory of those who did not procure sleep)
• Additionally, another research conducted on sleep indicates the following:
  • Each phase of sleep is characterized by certain cellular, anatomic and chemical events essential for proper neural functioning.
  • Various types of sleep deprivation (such as total sleep deprivation, sleep disruption and sleep restriction) may engender distinct obstacles to cognitive functioning.
  • The study of the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain suggests that two nights of total sleep can restore the behavioral deficits ensuing sleep deprivation.
  • However, at the same time, some findings from experiments on mice imply that chronic restriction or long-term sleep deprivation may give rise to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Contributors

Ayesh Perera