Causes of Sleep Deprivation in Western Cultures

Frenda, Patihis, Loftus, Lewis and Fenn’s (2014) article titled “Sleep Deprivation and False Memories sought out to explanation how sleep deprivation can have a role in an individual’s cognitive function. One-way researchers went about unraveling this particular question was to uncover the invisible knowledge relating the formation of false memories with sleep deprivation. Two experiments were executed diving into the many ways that sleep deprivation can affect a person’s thoughts and general decisions, using many examples.

The brain has to perform calculations on a day to day basis, and not giving it rest causes to accumulate stress. Besides processing calculations in order to carry out daily tasks, the brain also perceives enormous amounts of information, and needs down time to organize all the information. Usually the consolidating of all the information takes place when a person is sleeping, therefore depriving the brain of sleep will cause incognizant brain function and leave one groggy throughout the next day (Sample, 1). Distinct implications of decrease in brain function is displayed when a person experiences drowsiness throughout the day, which causes truncated memory retention rates and loss of

Lowered functioning includes decision making, because sleep-deprived people “have a tendency to make mistakes” (Myers and DeWall, 2015, p. 108). The good news is that sleep that has been lost can be treated almost completely by making up lost sleep shortly after the day of lost sleep (Myers and DeWall, 2015). To relate the choice of sleep with this theme, Moes and Tellinghuisen (2014) says that humans are given the ability to make decisions (how much they sleep), and because humans have agency they are only able to choose limitedly (the effects of sleep deprivation can limit our potential choices). It is important that we maintain a good

Sleep deprivation has become a wide spread issue in the United States. This spans from kids as young as 10 as far up as adults in their 40s and 50s. This causes these people to either be not at the top of their game, which can hinder their performance, and it can also make them start to get addicted to caffeinated beverages such as coffee and energy drinks. This issue could be solved with one thing, napping.

Have you ever been told to “sleep on it” when confronted with a serious decision? The study done by Seeley, C. J., Beninger, R. J., & Smith, C. T. titled “Post Learning Sleep Improves Cognitive-Emotional Decision-Making: Evidence for a ‘Deck B Sleep Effect’ in the Iowa Gambling Task” sets out to answer if sleeping helps improve decision making. For this study, they used the “Iowa Gambling Task (IGT)” on participants. After the IGT, participants had 12 hours of being awake, 12 hours of sleep, or 12 hours of sleep followed by 12 hours of being awake before taking the IGT again. This experiment is important because it would show if we make better decisions after sleeping on it. For important decisions, such as laws, business decisions, and even jury decisions, we want the best results, and sleeping on these decisions may provide better results. The main questions the researchers tried to answer were when starting out do people choose the deck with a more constant chance of winning, when learning more about the game do people change their choices, and does sleeping after the first session improve the participant’s performance in the next session. Their hypothesis, based on their previous experiments, was that initially more participants would choose from decks B and D, but after they learn more about the game they will start to choose more cards from decks C and D. They also hypothesized that sleeping after learning about the game would improve their results for the next

Even though the number of hours differs for different people, the mental and emotional affects damage all. Lack of sleep effects the brain’s

Unending and intense lack of sleep will adversely effect learning and considering. There is a misfortune consideration and readiness includes a progression of breaches, or eased back reactions prompting waking-state insecurity in a few psychological procedures, for example, working memory. Rest misfortune seems to influence a few parts of comprehension more than others. Case in point, inventive and creative mental handling have all the earmarks of being a great deal all the more contrarily disabled when contrasted with choice making and arranging undertakings other subjective aptitudes depressingly impeded from intense rest misfortune, for example, response time, memory assignments, visual motor errands and thinking abilities.

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

Two important sleep restriction studies that also included a short in-laboratory recovery phase were those by Dinges and colleagues11 and Belenky and colleagues.4 In the former study, sleep was restricted 33% below habitual sleep duration (average 4.98, SD 0.57 per night) for seven consecutive nights, after which participants were allowed one or two 10 hour recovery sleeps.11 In the latter, participants were permitted either 3, 5, 7 or 9 hours in bed each night, for seven nights, followed by three 8 hour recovery opportunities.4 These studies show that either two 10 hour or three 8 hour sleep opportunities were sufficient to recover performance to baseline levels. Although, participants felt that their functioning was restored with subjective reports of sleepiness and performance recovering to baseline; indicating that subjective measures do not appear to accurately parallel objective measures of neurobehavioural recovery. These findings suggest that more than 2 or 3 nights of extended sleep may be needed to return neurobehavioral functions to baseline levels. This may be especially important in situations where individuals are not able to choose or extend the length of their recovery sleep

Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the

The goal of this study was to investigate the role of sleep in the regulation of emotional reactivity and mood, and in particular the role of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The research team led by Rosales-Lagarde measured the impact of total sleep deprivation (TSD) by evaluating subjective responses to frustration and aversive stimuli. It was found that coping skills and emotional regulatory abilities were decreased along with decision-making skills following REM sleep disturbances. It was also found that the subjects that experienced disturbances in REM sleep displayed a greater degree of impulsiveness when faced with a risky decision and favored utilitarian judgments. The data was collected using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) imaging of the brain during the various stages of the experiment, and during the administration of the Emotional Reactivity Task. It was found that there is a greater and longer lasting activation of the amygdala while viewing negative stimuli, and specifically following TSD. This study was based on previous research that suggests that REM sleep plays a significant role in emotional regulation, as brain areas associated with emotion are specifically activated during REM sleep cycles. These include the amygdaloid complex, medial and orbital frontal cortices, and posterior association areas.

There are many factors that could potentially have an impact on an individual’s performance on cognitive function assessments. Sleep is one of the factors that impact the way an individual performs everyday tasks. Being fully rested and having a full night’s rest give individuals the ability to make clear decisions, allow them to solve complex problems and comprehend the world around them. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, hinders people by not allowing them to think about their options and by making it harder for them to focus on the task at hand.

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 one of the key essentials for cognitive performance, yet it is accounted that most people do not receive a sufficient amount. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2016 that on average, 50-70 million Americans do not receive the proper amount of sleep per night. This concept is more commonly referred to as sleep deprivation. By definition, sleep deprivation is simply not getting enough or the lack of sleep. As the number of hours that a person is awake increase, their cognitive and attentional deficits become more evident. Prospective memory is remembering to do something that you previously planned to do. This form of memory is often aided by cues in the environment and requires cognitive and attentional capacities. Sleep or the lack thereof can impact numerous processes such as memory, attention, and executive functioning. The main objective of this present study is to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on the attentional networks and cognitive functioning required for prospective memory. The results of this study will provide in depth insight on the importance of an adequate amount of sleep for the successful performance of various cognitive tasks and propose further research.

Sleep deprivation doesn’t only affect the brain 's functions but can also affect one 's personality