The consequences of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance

Abstract

Although not fully understood, sleep is accepted as a vital and organized sequence of events that follows a regular cyclic program each night to ensure the human body can perform at its optimum. A lack of sleep, or sleep deprivation (SD), is a widespread phenomenon that can induce adverse changes in cognitive performance. This review focused on the biological explanation as well as the research investigating the numerous effects that SD can have on cognition. A reduction in sleep does not occur independently of the effects on memory, attention, alertness, judgment, decision-making, and overall cognitive abilities in the brain, resulting in decreased function and impaired cognitive performance.