Can coffee or a nap make up for sleep deprivation? A psychologist explains why there's no substitute for shut-eye

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Kimberly Fenn, Michigan State University

(THE CONVERSATION) There is no denying the importance of sleep. Everyone feels better after a good night of sleep, and lack of sleep can have profoundly negative effects on both the body and the brain. So what can be done to substitute for a lack of sleep? Put another way, how can you get less sleep and still perform at your peak?

As a psychologist who studies the ways in which sleep benefits memory, I’m also interested in how sleep deprivation harms memory and cognition. After some initial research on sleep deprivation and false confessions, my students at Michigan State University’s Sleep and Learning Lab and I wanted to see what interventions could reverse the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

We found a simple answer: There is no substitute for sleep.

Sleep deprivation impairs cognition

For many years, scientists have known that sleep deprivation reduces the ability to maintain attention. When asked to monitor a computer screen and press a button whenever a red dot appears – a pretty simple task – participants who are...