Neurocognitive Consequences of Sleep Deprivation

Deficits in daytime performance due to sleep loss are experienced universally and associated with a significant social, financial, and human cost. Microsleeps, sleep attacks, and lapses in cognition increase with sleep loss as a function of state instability. Sleep deprivation studies repeatedly show a variable (negative) impact on mood, cognitive performance, and motor function due to an increasing sleep propensity and destabilization of the wake state. Specific neurocognitive domains including executive attention, working memory, and divergent higher cognitive functions are particularly vulnerable to sleep loss. In humans, functional metabolic and neurophysiological studies demonstrate that neural systems…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• NS
  National Space Biomedical Research Institute
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• SO
  School of Medicine, Indiana University