A new study revealed that recovering from memory problems and reaction speeds that develop after 10 days of poor sleep can take over a week. To investigate whether it is possible to recover from sleep deprivation and how long it takes, a team from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, conducted a study on 13 volunteers suffering from intermittent and poor sleep for ten nights.
During the ten nights and one week of good sleep, the volunteers answered a series of questions, wore wrist sensors, and underwent daily electroencephalogram (EEG) tests. After a week of good sleep, the results showed that the volunteers' reaction speeds returned to normal, but memory and other functions affected by sleep deprivation remained sluggish.
Jeremy Oshab, the lead author of the study, stated that previous research explored the effects of sleep deprivation on humans, but this study is the first to discover that restoring memory to normal levels and regaining quick reactions takes more than a week of continuous good sleep.
Chronic lack of sleep can lead to changes in the body's circadian rhythm, resulting in decreased alertness, diminished attention, and memory problems. The study was published in the Polish medical journal "PLOS One," according to the British newspaper Daily Mail.
