Cited by 2,154Sleep and Work-Related FatigueSleep and Wakefulness ResearchSleep and related disorders

Neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation

Open access
Goel, Namni, Rao, Hengyi, Durmer, Jeffrey, Dinges, David·2009·Seminars in Neurology

Abstract

Sleep deprivation is associated with considerable social, financial, and health-related costs, in large measure because it produces impaired cognitive performance due to increasing sleep propensity and instability of waking neurobehavioral functions. Cognitive functions particularly affected by sleep loss include psychomotor and cognitive speed, vigilant and executive attention, working memory, and higher cognitive abilities. Chronic sleep-restriction experiments--which model the kind of sleep loss experienced by many individuals with sleep fragmentation and premature sleep curtailment due to disorders and lifestyle--demonstrate that cognitive deficits accumulate to severe levels over time without full awareness by the affected individual. Functional neuroimaging has revealed that frequent and progressively longer cognitive lapses, which are a hallmark of sleep deprivation, involve distributed changes in brain regions including frontal and parietal control areas, secondary sensory processing areas, and thalamic areas. There are robust differences among individuals in the degree of their cognitive vulnerability to sleep loss that may involve differences in prefrontal and parietal cortices, and that may have a basis in genes regulating sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms. Thus, cognitive deficits believed to be a function of the severity of clinical sleep disturbance may be a product of genetic alleles associated with differential cognitive vulnerability to sleep loss.

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Crossref · 10.1055/s-0029-1237117

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245 of 245 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Poor sleep quality negatively affects student learning through its function on cognition and memory.

    “The negative effect of poor sleep quality on student learning can be explained by the function of sleep on cognition and memory.”

    From A serial mediation model of social media addiction and college students' academic engagement: the role of sleep quality and fatigue (2023) · cites this paper as [69]

    The “Memory Acquisition and Retention” section says sleep deprivation impairs memory encoding and retention, a capacity it calls essential for learning; the “Cognitive Performance during Sleep Deprivation” section also reports cognitive deficits from sleep loss. These passages support the proposed link to learning, but they address sleep deprivation rather than poor sleep quality generally and do not specifically establish an effect on students. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Poor sleep quality impairs attention and affects cognitive functions such as language learning and abstract logical thinking, which are important for learning inputs.

    “Poor sleep quality impairs attention and affects cognitive functions governed by the brain, including language learning and abstract logical thinking, which are extremely important for learning inputs [69].”

    From A serial mediation model of social media addiction and college students' academic engagement: the role of sleep quality and fatigue (2023) · cites this paper as [69]

    The Cognitive Performance during Sleep Deprivation section (page unavailable) supports impaired attention and some higher cognitive functions after sleep loss. The Verbal Learning section discusses verbal-learning and logic-reasoning tasks, but reports neural activation rather than clear impairment on those tasks; the paper also says novel logic-based tasks show little change after sleep loss. The claim extends findings about sleep deprivation to poor sleep quality generally and overstates the evidence for impaired language learning and abstract logical thinking. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • From the perspective of overall functional performance, the degree of cognitive dysfunction in patients with MDD is comparable to that after 24 h of sleep deprivation or with blood alcohol levels sufficient to be considered legally impaired.

    “From the perspective of overall functional performance, the degree of cognitive dysfunction in patients with MDD is comparable to that after 24 h of sleep deprivation or with blood alcohol levels sufficient to be considered legally impaired (driving, and so on) (Goel et al, 2009).”

    From A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Active-Reference, Double-Blind, Flexible-Dose Study of the Efficacy of Vortioxetine on Cognitive Function in Major Depressive Disorder (2015) · cites this paper as Goel et al, 2009

    The Sleep Deprivation and Accident Risk section reports that sleep deprivation can produce psychomotor and driving impairments comparable to those at legally impairing blood alcohol levels. The Cognitive Performance during Sleep Deprivation section also describes cognitive deficits from sleep loss. Neither section establishes that cognitive dysfunction in patients with MDD is comparable to either condition; the paper supplies the sleep-loss and alcohol comparison, not the MDD comparison. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Experimental studies support a detrimental effect of acute sleep deprivation on immediate cognitive performance.

    “Experimental studies support a detrimental effect of acute sleep deprivation on immediate cognitive performance.(311)”
  • Studies show that as sleep time declines, attentional lapses increase in a somewhat dose-dependent manner.

    “These studies show that as sleep time declines, attentional lapses increase in a somewhat dose-dependent manner.86,89”

    From Sleep, Health, and Society (2017) · cites this paper as [86]

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Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. [30]Ulmer C Wolman DM Johns MME Resident duty hours: enhancing sleep, supervision, and safety Committee on Optimizing Graduate Medical Trainee (Resident) Hours and Work Schedules to Improve Patient Safety. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies 2008 Washington, DC The National Academies Press 25009922
  2. [100]Harrison Y Horne JA Sleep loss impairs short and novel language tasks having a prefrontal focus J Sleep Res 1998 7 2 95 100 9682180
  3. [164]Asllani I Habeck C Borogovac A Effects of 48hr sleep deprivation on cerebral blood flow measured with arterial spin labeling MRI Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2007 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Berkeley, CA 0507
  4. [165]Rao H Lim J Wu WC Detre JA Dinges DF Neural correlates of inter-individual differences in sleep deprivation susceptibility: a pilot perfusion imaging study on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test Paper presented at: National Sleep Foundation Young Investigators Conference, Basic Research Session March 2, 2008 Washington, DC

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Authors
Goel, N., Rao, H., Durmer, J., & Dinges, D.
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania (US)
Venue
Seminars in Neurology
Published
2009-09
Volume
29
Issue
04
Pages
320-339
ISSN
  • 0271-8235 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-9021
OpenAlex
W2159662907
Cited by
2,154
References
245
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 100 · 2024: 75 · 2023: 81 · 2022: 124 · 2021: 130 · 2020: 156 · 2019: 137 · 2018: 132 · 2017: 120 · 2016: 149 · 2015: 147 · 2014: 137 · 2013: 126 · 2012: 89
FWCI
139.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Seminars in Neurology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Nursing Research (NR004281, R01NR004281)
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR024134)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
Keywords
sleep deprivation, cognitive impairment, sleep fragmentation, cognitive vulnerability, individual differences, prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, thalamus, executive attention, working memory, sustained attention, circadian rhythm genes, sleep homeostasis, chronic sleep restriction
MeSH terms
Animals, Attention, Brain, Cognition Disorders, Humans, Neuropsychological Tests, Problem Solving, Sleep Deprivation, Wakefulness

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