Coffee and sleep
Scientists told in which case coffee will not help
Caffeine helps to wake up, adds energy, but does not compensate for the hours of sleep lost by the body. The results of the study are published in the Journal of the American Psychological Association Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
Scientists from the Faculties of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Michigan assessed how coffee copes with the negative impact of lack of sleep on cognitive abilities. They selected 275 volunteers, who were divided into two groups: the first spent the night without sleep in the laboratory, the second slept peacefully at home. In the morning, both were given a caffeine capsule or a placebo. They were asked to take a simple concentration test and solve a more complex "placement" task – it required performing actions in a certain order without skipping or repeating steps.
"We found that sleep deprivation worsened performance when performing both types of tasks, and caffeine helped to successfully complete only an easier task, but for most participants it had little effect on performance when performing the placement task," said study leader, associate professor of psychology from the Sleep and Learning Laboratory, Dr. Kimberly Fenn; her words are quoted in the press release of the university.
According to the authors of the work, the problem of lack of sleep in the United States and other developed countries is very acute. Their research proves that when solving it, one cannot rely on the brain-stimulating effect of coffee. This drink increases energy, reduces drowsiness and may even improve mood, but "absolutely does not replace a full night's sleep," scientists point out.
"It does little to prevent procedural failures that can lead to things like medical errors or car accidents. If we found that caffeine reduces procedural errors in sleep deprivation conditions, it would have broad implications for people who have to perform responsible actions with insufficient sleep, such as surgeons, pilots or police officers. But our results, on the contrary, emphasize the absolute importance of sleep," Fenn explained.
As scientists have pointed out, a constant lack of sleep not only affects cognitive abilities and changes mood, but ultimately can affect immunity, which is especially dangerous during a pandemic.
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