Miao 1
Lin Miao
Instructor: Cristine Rikkers
English, Memory and Forgetting
May 16th 2014
Sleep Deprivation’s Effect on Memory and Remembering
Just how important is sleep when it comes to learning and remembering? In college, many students are overloaded with school work, whether is be due to their personal lives, activities outside of class, procrastination or poor time management skills, students often find themselves giving up sleep to spend time studying for their classes. Is this really such a good idea? During finals week, a period of great stress in college life, students will often times suffer from partial sleep or even complete sleep deprivation, while desperately cramming things into their heads that they hope to be able to remember the next day. A study performed on university business students in Hong Kong found that two thirds of 620 participating university students reported suffering sleep deprivation (Tsui, 2009). The hours of sleep reported by the participants were considerably lower during weekdays compared to on weekends (Tsui, 2009). Sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality are not at all uncommon in university students, especially those attending highly competitive schools.
Miao 2
In order to understand why sleep is so important, we must understand the process of memory consolidation and the role that sleep plays. Memory consolidation uses three specific processes, synaptic consolidation, systems consolidation and reconsolidation. Synaptic consolidation usually lasts less than 24 hours whereas systems consolidation is a slow dynamic process than can take up to 20 years in adults.
According to System Consolidation Of Memory During Sleep, there has been a lot of evidence accumulated over the last 20 ye...
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This article sums up the inventions of Nikola Tesla, it is significant since tesla was a severely sleep deprived individual who accomplished incredible things. Although he died a alone and as a poor man, he is responsible for much of the world as we know it today.
Tsui, YY, and YK Wing. "A Study On The Sleep Patterns And Problems Of University Business Students
In Hong Kong." Journal Of American College Health 58.2 (2009): 167-176. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 15 May 2014.
This study performed in Hong Kong was interesting and helped support the idea that college students are not getting enough sleep and that sleep deprivation is a real problem amongst young adults during their years of studies. Self reported testimonials were collected from university business students.
3)The REM Sleep-Memory Consolidation Hypothesis," article on Center for Sleep Research's homepage, Interesting site for sleep disorders
Sleep deprivation is a commonplace occurrence in modern culture. Every day there seems to be twice as much work and half as much time to complete it in. This results in either extended periods of wakefulness or a decrease in sleep over an extended period of time. While some people may like to believe that they can train their bodies to not require as much sleep as they once did this belief is false (1). Sleep is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body, especially the brain, so that it may continue to function optimally. After periods of extended wakefulness or reduced sleep neurons may begin to malfunction, visibly effecting a person's behavior. Some organs, such as muscles, are able to regenerate even when a person is not sleeping so long as they are resting. This could involve lying awake but relaxed within a quite environment. Even though cognitive functions might not seem necessary in this scenario the brain, especially the cerebral cortex, is not able to rest but rather remains semi-alert in a state of "quiet readiness" (2). Certain stages of sleep are needed for the regeneration of neurons within the cerebral cortex while other stages of sleep seem to be used for forming new memories and generating new synaptic connections. The effects of sleep deprivation on behavior have been tested with relation to the presence of activity in different sections of the cerebral cortex.
Is sleep important for memory consolidation? Past research has found that sleep is an important factor in the consolidation of newly acquired memories; however, this consolidation often depends on the specific memory as well as when (e.g., time after learning) sleep occurs. It is important to note that sleep is not constant, throughout the night. Sleep is a cycle that is broken down into rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep (Stickgold, 2005). Non-REM consists of sleep stages 1 through 4, in which stages 3 and 4 constitute what is known as slow-wave sleep (SWS) (Rasch & Born, 2008). Moreover, the construct of memory is often divided into different types of memories, declarative (e.g., facts and events) and non-declarative (e.g., procedural skills) (Stickgold, 2005). When discussing memory consolidation, research has defined it as a progression of memory stabilization that leads memories to become resistant to interference (Stickgold, 2005). Results from past research indicate that memory consolidation occurs through the reactivation of memories during sleep, which enhances and stabilizes the memory (Diekelmann & Born, 2010).
...ep. There are events in sleep that are associated with synaptic modification, which is the basis of brain rewiring that enhances cognition. There is evidence that sleep accelerated transcription of cortical genes that are associated with protein synthesis9. These newly generated proteins are known to be required for strengthening of existing synapses and building new synapses. Studies have found increase of factors associated with brain-plasticity and enhanced learning during sleep5. These factors include phosphorylated or activated CREB, a transcriptional factor, as well as Arc, BDNF, and NGFI-A. These evidence help explain how sleep can influence brain rewiring through synaptic modification. This mechanism helps explain how sleep can modify the brain and ultimately enhance learning. This is a strong evidence that supports the synaptic downscaling hypothesis.
Research shows that sleep is a necessity in order for someone to be able to perform at their maximum potential. College students are no exception to the rule and are often at a greater risk to suffer from conditions that accompany sleep deprivation. Regardless of the time period, a college student must be well rested in order to perform at his or her best in terms of physical performance, memorization capabilities, and test-taking abilities. Also, without adequate sleep, the person will be more susceptible to illnesses, both mental and physical. In conclusion, I believe that sleep deprivation among college students is extremely common and has a direct effect on how well that student will perform or feel.
Each night, the average person spends approximately 7-9 hours giving their bodies a restful vacation in the land of dreams. Considering this, we spend 1/3 (or 25 years) of our entire lives engaging in this idle activity. Although these numbers can appear as a waste of time in our every day lives, sleeping and/or napping is the energy that helps fuel our bodies to function correctly. Sleep is a necessary function in our every day routine in order to make our brains function at the most efficient level. As we sleep, the brain helps us to recuperate and regain strength by “restoring and repairing the brain tissue” (Myers, 2010, p 99). Without this reviving process, we would all eventually deteriorate. By impairing the sleep deprived mentally and physically, it can potentially cause serious harm. We must fade our conscious mind, and let our mind relax within subconscious state.
Sleep loss and shifting sleep patterns are known to be widespread across college campuses throughout the United States and the world at large. Yet, while many studies exist relating sleep to performance, a much smaller amount of studies focus on the Through analysis of these sources as they would prove useful when researching and writing upon the idea of sleep and its correlation to academic performance it was found that a paper titled “Sleep-Wake Patterns and Academic Performance in University Students”, which was presented to the European Conference on Educational Research, is overall the most useful source represented to research the topic.
In the world of higher education, students at the collegiate level are highly likely to be overwhelmed with course load, in addition to sports and extra-curricular activities (Jacobs & Dodd, 2003). These factors have the potential to lead to various amounts of sleep deprivation, and as the research of Nilsson, Sunderstrom, Karlsson et al. (2004) has shown, sleep deprivation is correlated with higher levels of fatigue, impairments in speed and accuracy as well as limitations in cognitive and physical performances. One way to cope with this fatigue that has shown to have very positive results on people of all ages is taking naps. In addition to reducing sleepiness, Milner & Cote (2008) have determined that “napping may lead to considerable benefits in terms of mood, alertness and cognitive performances”. It is these benefits that nappers seek when engaging in napping activities.
Many times people think they can accomplish more if they could eliminate so much sleeping time. However, they are only hurting their productivity if they lose sleep. Two articles deal with the issue of sleep deprivation. The College Student Journal published an article about the grade-point average of college students and sleep length, while U.S. News & World Report produced an article dealing with the lack of
Those few sleepless hours shouldn’t hurt, right? Unfortunately, those few hours could have prevented sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation affects one’s school performance and one’s health too. Many everyday appliances affect one’s sleeping patterns and habits as well. Lack of sleep is a problem not only for me, but for many teenagers. Sleep deprivation also takes a toll on physical and mental health along with other health problems. These obstacles will help one grow as a character because they can learn from their mistakes and solve them. By looking at what causes sleep deprivation, what the effects of sleep deprivation are, and what are the solutions to solve sleep deprivation, one can see that sleep is an important part to succeed in school and life.
Sleep has always been a popular subject among humans. There have been many studies that examine sleep and its correlation with a wide variety of variables, such as depression, energy levels, and grades. Students, as a group, are widely studied. As the world’s future leaders and thinkers, there is great importance placed on their achievements. In this study the effect of student sleep habits on perceived academic performance is investigated. Many things may affect students’ academic success among these variables are sleep habits.
Tsui, Y., & Wing, Y. (2009). A study on the sleep patterns and problems of university business students in Hong Kong. Journal of American College Health, 58(2), 167-176.
Sleep has a very important role in a person’s physical health and wellbeing, yet in the U.S., only 56% of Americans get recommended amount of sleep. The average sleep requirement for students in college is around 8 hours. If students don’t reach that amount, they have created a sleep debt. A sleep debt is when all lost sleep accumulates to create a larger sleep indebtedness. The sleep debt does not disappear or decline; you can only reduce your debt by obtaining extra sleep above the daily requirement.
Rasch, Björn, and Jan Born. "About Sleep 's Role in Memory." Physiological Reviews. American Physiological Society, n.d. Web. 06 May 2016.
Sleep plays a vital role in a person’s mental well-being. Sleeping affects how well people think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. While a person is sleeping, his brain is preparing to help him learn and remember information. A good night’s sleep enhances learning and problem solving skills. It is very important for the students to have sound sleep as it can improve their concentration, memory and creativity. Furthermore, having enough sleep increases the ability to m...