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Published online 14 July 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.953
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Sleep loss produces false memories
But caffeine helps to boost accurate recall
Sleepless nights can increase your chances of forming false memories, according to researchers in Germany and Switzerland. But, as for so many aspects of life, it seems that coffee can save the day.
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I think this is especially interesting considering today's society. Many people do not get adequate sleep and rely partially on caffeine to help get through the day. Definitely intesting research.
Hopefully research like this will eventually have some political impact, since sleep deprivation is a commonly used interrogation technique in the U.S. military.
I bet this is caused by intrusion of REM-like states into waking. I heard a report once of a patient who regularly saw angels and demons walking down the the street mixing casually with more ordinary beings -- until he got treatment for his narcolepsy. Being asked to recall whether the new words had been on the old list could possibly correspond for these subjects to the surprising stimulus that commonly precipitates an attack of narcolesy in those suffering from that disease. Caffeine is often said to be useful in controlling narcolepsy, but a 2006 review article claims a placebo controlled study to assess its effectiveness has not been done.
PLEASE! Dr McCabe do not use the word 'fatigue' when you mean sleep deprived, or sleepy! Fatigue refers to the emotion… alright, call it the 'feeling state' that makes you aware you have depleted your energy store at a greater rate than it is being regenerated. It is your physiological entity informing your consciousness that you need to make the decision to stop the activity you are engaged in and take a rest. If you are 'fatigued', usually you will be unable to sleep. At the end of a match, does a footballer fall asleep? Just like a feeling of anger is firing up your physiology to aggress against some threat or challenge. Incidentally, road safety authorities love the word 'fatigue' (probably because it sounds more important than sleepy), but as far as I know, there are no studies that show driving performance is affected by fatigue. There are plenty of studies that show being sleepy is a big, big risk factor in road crashes (not 'accidents')! Not only when driving a vehicle, but also when operating industrial or farm machinery… or just cutting up vegetables in the kitchen. As a sleep researcher interviewing people who experience excessive daytime sleepiness, I have to spend too much time persuading them to distinguish between being tired and being sleepy — "I feel tired, lacking energy all day" is not the same, and is not caused by the same factors as "I feel I could go to sleep if circumstances allowed". John M Reid
A good point raised by Lindsay Triplett - and not just for the government body mentioned. All captives, whether specifically subjected to sleep deprivation or not, would suffer from lack of sleep due to their surroundings. I wonder if this type of research presents a legal argument for dismissing any evidence gathered from a captive? Perhaps we should provide more salubrious surroundings to prisoners to try to "jog their memories"?
Interesting. Any dose-effect trial of caffeine?
The results are interesting, but not that surprising. Any time when I attend a conference and make a presentation, a good sleep always helps me to keep the line of my talk. The author's point about the accurate recall of the witnesses is new to me. Should we give them a cup of coffee 1 hour before?
OK, so if I plan to testify in court, is it reasonable for opposing counsel to query my sleep habits as a strategy to devalue my testimony?
The Ouroboros Model predicts just this: parts of schemata, "associations", which have not been properly allocated and 'consumed', will accrue as leftovers, i.e. as data garbage. A main funtion of sleep then is seen in improving signal/noise ratio by clearing away such remainders. At http://cogprints.org/6081/ a short sketch of the Ouroboros Model can be found.