Scientists explain whether coffee can save you from sleep deprivation

The importance of sleep has long been known. Now, scientists have decided to test whether daily coffee consumption can affect sleep deprivation and what it will lead to.

In the field of cognitive research, the focus is on understanding how sleep affects memory and, conversely, how lack of sleep impairs it and cognitive abilities. That’s why the first study linking sleep deprivation to false confessions prompted a group of researchers from the Sleep and Learning Laboratory at Michigan State University, along with their students, to begin studying interventions that could counteract the adverse effects of sleep deprivation, ScienceAlert writes.

The result of this study is unequivocal: nothing can replace sleep.

People who have to do a relatively simple job of watching a computer screen and pressing a button when a red dot appears are sleep deprived and have increased distractibility. They may not notice a bright red dot, which leads to an inability to react to it within the set interval of half a second. These lapses in attention can be explained by a greater desire to sleep each time and are most noticeable during the phases of the circadian rhythm when the body is waiting for rest.

The subtleties come to the surface when the effects of sleep deprivation on complex cognitive processes are carefully studied. To test for different cognitive modalities, it was necessary to keep the participants awake at night and then ask them to perform a number of cognitive tasks.

Before that, the task was first performed in the evening. The scientists divided them up to allow participants to either go to sleep or endure a night’s wakefulness. After sleeping, the participants gathered again in the morning to perform cognitive tasks.

Along with a deficit in sustained attention, the study found an increased prevalence of errors in memorization caused by lack of sleep.

Caffeine as a sleep aid

The result of this study was the desire to find out the effectiveness of various countermeasures against sleep deprivation. The question arises: how do people usually react to lack of sleep?

The most common response is to consume caffeinated beverages such as coffee or energy drinks. A 2022 survey showed this pattern, finding that more than 90% of American adults surveyed include caffeine in their daily diet.

A study has been launched to determine whether caffeine can potentially support attention and mitigate sleep deprivation-induced errors that occur due to lack of sleep.

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An important discovery was made: caffeine demonstrated a significant ability to improve concentration in participants who were sleep deprived. It is noteworthy that their performance was the same as that of those who enjoyed a full night of sleep.

Moreover, people who were well rested after sleeping also improved their attention span after taking caffeine. This finding is consistent with previous research and confirms the attention-enhancing properties of caffeine.

In contrast, the improvement potential of caffeine did not extend to memory errors, regardless of whether it was people who were sleep-deprived or people who were well rested.

Therefore, the usefulness of caffeine in increasing attention and promoting activity, for example, in leisure activities, is obvious. However, its ability to improve performance on tasks requiring complex cognitive processing, such as taking an algebra exam, remains limited.

Can a nap during the day compensate for lack of sleep

Among the many alternatives that have been studied, natural sleep is, oddly enough, intuitive. The feasibility of sleep, which is traditionally associated with daytime vigor, required research into its potential to counteract the effects of nighttime sleep deprivation.

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Preliminary results indicate that a 30- to 60-minute nap strategically placed between 4 and 6 a.m., which coincides with the daily minimum of wakefulness, does not provide significant benefits for cognitive function.

Both basic concentration tasks and complex memorization tasks showed minimal difference between those who slept and those who did not sleep during the night

Although caffeine is a wakefulness and focus enhancer, its effectiveness in complex cognitive areas remains limited. Similarly, despite the ability of short naps to provide temporary relief at night when you need to be at your best, the effectiveness of such measures in improving cognitive performance remains modest.

Therefore, the indispensability of healthy sleep remains undeniable, despite any possible substitutes.