A new study published in the journal Psychological Science looked at the relationship between sleep deprivation and the presence of false memories. The researchers note that there is a lot of research on how people become susceptible to false memories. Despite evidence that shows sleep deprivation is a key component, there is a lack of research on that connection. This study attempts to fill that gap.

According to Medical News Today, a preliminary study by the team found that sleeping for five hours or less a night was linked to false memory formation. To delve deeper, the researchers investigated how complete sleep deprivation would affect false memories. To show their memory recall, participants read narratives of eyewitness statements that gave different information to what the crime photos showed. Participants were then asked to recall what was shown in the photos.

The researchers found that, for the participants who stayed awake all night, they were more likely to say that the details in the narratives were present in the photos rather than indicating that the two were different. This demonstrated false memory formation. For those that were asked to perform the task prior to staying up all night and the group that got to sleep, the rate of false memory formation was the same, demonstrating significant impact of sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation is known to have a number of adverse effects. An early study in the Journal of Sleep Research & Sleep Medicine found that cognitive and motor performance were impaired by partial or full sleep deprivation, exacerbated by long-term sleep deprivation. Another study from the journal SLEEP explains that it is less about the sleep and more about the body being in a wakeful state for longer. Staying awake has neurobiological costs and, if done to a large extent, can be harmful.