A claim you hear on longevity podcasts
The claim checked: Short-term sleep deprivation has a clear, remarkable negative impact on thinking Hear it at 0:26
Five of seven studies found sleep loss hurt memory or mental performance. Two studies that cut sleep found little or no drop, one noting only missed practice gains.
Computed from 7 studies that test this point, each judged by two readers, in full. 10 more studies are waiting for a full read and do not count yet.
“short-term sleep deprivation is easy to study um and it unequivocally demonstrates uh a remarkable uh negative impact on cognition on physical performance”
other primary study · 2012
“We observed a deterioration of performance during both repeated partial and acute total sleep deprivation.”
Effects of partial and acute total sleep deprivation on performance across cognitive domains, individuals and circadian phase. PLoS One
Who: 36 healthy young adults (18 men; mean age 27.6), stratified by PER3 genotype, in a UK laboratory
PMID 23029352
controlled trial · 2017
“The analysis also showed a significant group by session interaction (F 5,48 = 23.9, p < 0.001), demonstrating that SD degraded performance on the AX-CPT-s.”
Sleep Deprivation Diminishes Attentional Control Effectiveness and Impairs Flexible Adaptation to Changing Conditions. Sci Rep
Who: 49 healthy adults aged 27.3 ± 4.8 years (22 women, 27 men), randomized to sleep deprivation (n = 34) or well-rested control (n = 15)
PMID 29167485
pooled analysis · 2024
“Restricting sleep (3–6.5 hours) compared to normal sleep (7–11 hours) negatively affects memory formation with a small effect size (Hedges’ g = 0.29, 95 % CI = [0.13, 0.44]).”
A systematic and meta-analytic review of the impact of sleep restriction on memory formation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev
Who: Participants in sleep restriction studies, mostly young (60% of effect sizes with age involved 20–25-year-olds; only one effect size had mean age above 30)
PMID 39427809
pooled analysis · 2010 · landmark
“The results from our meta-analysis support the conclusions of previous reviews that short-term total SD has a significant deleterious effect across most cognitive domains.”
A meta-analysis of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on cognitive variables. Psychol Bull
Who: healthy adults aged 18+ in studies of total sleep deprivation of 24-48 hr
PMID 20438143
pooled analysis · 2021
“For sleep deprivation before learning, we found an average effect size of g = 0.621.”
Sleep deprivation and memory: Meta-analytic reviews of studies on sleep deprivation before and after learning. Psychol Bull
Who: healthy adults 18+, mostly young (mean age about 22-25), in total sleep deprivation experiments
PMID 35238586
controlled trial · 2024 · landmark
“This hypothesis was partially supported in that we found that adequate sleep intervention improved working memory beyond a practice effect, although insufficient sleep had little effect on cognitive function in this sample.”
The effects of insufficient sleep and adequate sleep on cognitive function in healthy adults. Sleep Health
Who: 65 healthy adults who habitually slept 7-9 h (mean age 35.9, 89% women)
PMID 38233280
other primary study · 2006
“This effect of sleep condition was unexpected; sleep restriction prevented improvements in the speed of working memory scanning, but did not produce performance deficits relative to baseline.”
The contribution of sleep to improvements in working memory scanning speed: a study of prolonged sleep restriction. Biol Psychol
Who: 22 healthy adults aged 21-30 (10 women, 12 men), habitual 7-9 h sleepers, inpatient at Beth Israel Deaconess
PMID 16384630
None.
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