Why Sleep Deprivation Wrecks Decision-Making
by turhan-ergene
How losing sleep changes the way the brain weighs risk, files away memories and catches its own mistakes. Written for anyone curious about the science behind a genuinely bad night's sleep.
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Study material
Two separate things happen across a normal night of sleep. During deep non-REM sleep, the hippocampus replays the day's new experiences and gradually transfers stable copies of them into the cortex for longer-term storage. During REM sleep, the brain reactivates emotional memories while the chemicals linked to stress and anxiety stay unusually quiet, which lets those memories be revisited without the original emotional sting attached.
A person is deprived of REM sleep on the night after a distressing event, but still gets a normal amount of non-REM sleep. Based on what each stage does, what would you expect the next day?
multiple choice
AThey forget the event's facts entirely but feel emotionally at peace about it
BThey remember the event's facts clearly but the memory still feels emotionally raw
CThey remember nothing about the event, factual or emotional
DThey remember the facts and feel no different than they would have without REM sleep
Work out which stage handles the facts and which stage handles the feelings, then decide what's missing when only one of the two actually happens.
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