Sleep and school performance

Earlier in lab today, a few of us discussed with Dr. Wasser the consequences of sleep deprivation, whether it be total sleep deprivation or deprivation of continuous sleep. I realize this isn't much related to anything we're doing. But it interested me so I thought I'd do some research and share the interesting things that I found.

Most of us know that without sleep, we tend to be irritable and less efficient. The University of California - San Diego did a study that reveals that brain activity is actually altered during sleep deprivation. Interestingly, the frontal lobe showed a decrease in activity when the subject was sleep deprived. A professor at Trent University in Canada did a study on college students that suggests some adverse results of sleep deprivation.

"Students who studied hard all week and then stayed up all night partying on the weekend lost as much as 30% of what they had learned during the week." (Source).
In March 1998 students at Colchester Sixth Form College in Britain subjected themselves to sleep deprivation and tested the results. They noticed a decrease in typing speed and reaction skills. Surprisingly they saw an improvement in math skills, short term memory, and paper sorting ability.

Sean Dupont