Sleep Deprivation: Impact on Cognitive Performance And Memory

Sleep loss or what can be called sleep deprivation is an acute or chronic condition of not having enough sleep. This is of a varying range of severity and it affects the cognitive ability of the brain. Memory, on the other hand, is the ability to remember information, experiences, and people as defined by the Cambridge dictionary. The quality of life for a person can be disrupted by a number of reasons for which sleep loss is one. In recent times, people are found to have increased work hours and leisure time and affect the time of sleep.

Some professions such as health care, security, and transportation require working at night (Alhola $ Polo-Kantola 2007). In these spheres of life, sleep deprivation is often necessary for work performance, hence people tend to stretch the capability by denying themselves of the sleep which over time becomes a chronic condition.

Memory for verbal habit is facilitated by sleep occurring during the retention interval (fowler et al, 1973).

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Forgetfulness is a memory defect that is often caused by interference during the learning process which happens during the retention interval. To prevent this interference, the subject can be put to sleep. Psychologists have linked the benefit of sleep on memory retention to a particular stage called REM (rapid eye movement). REM sleep is responsible for consolidating memory retention and its deprivation would increase the time over which the brain is receptive of electroconvulsive shocks. Sleep deprivation would affect memory by slowing down reaction time, reducing working memory capacity, interfere with normal learning, and impairs executive functions of the brain which may include inhibition, memory, attention, flexibility, planning, and problem-solving.

It may also be thought to initiate false memory according to some psychologist; however, the evidence, in this case, is sparse.

Critique of Article

The article establishes the relationship between sleep and memory in an effectively organized pattern that allows the reader to harness very vital information on the issue it discusses. It attempts to answer questions regarding acute and chronic sleep disorders explaining what sleep and sleep loss means, the mechanism behind the sleep, Acute and chronic sleep deprivation, long-term memory, Cognitive functions and its recovery from sleep deprivation, the relationship between gender, aging, and sleep disorder, and a lot more. The author makes use of simple vocabularies to drive a number of meaningful points homemaking understanding clearer and better. The article also uses experimental researches and authoritative references to explain the processes and cite effective examples and cases that consolidate the points it stresses.

Impact on the Field of Psychology

This article is an educative piece that contributes to the database of knowledge that abounds in the field of psychology because it helps to reveal the negative effects of sleep deprivation on the cognitive ability of the brain which impedes most of the executive functions of the brain. Psychology is very much concerned with the functioning of the brain and how it affects human reasoning. Through this article, psychologists are informed on the various factors that could bring about sleep defects like age, gender, and lifestyle and so on. This article reviews evidence that sleep involves a highly active collection of brain states and has the unique properties that support the acquisition and consolidation of learned information. It is of most positive impact on the field of cognitive psychology and revelation such as the uncertainty between sleep deprivation and false memory created a ground for further research into a false memory.