Sleep Deprivation’s Effect on Your Brain

You watched cat videos all night. Now, you can’t seem to shake the grogginess and struggle to complete [splash] basic tasks.

[Rustle] Your sluggishness mimics your brain’s performance after a night [zip] of no sleep. [Woosh] As you try to stay alert after little sleep, regions across [whirring] your cortex, or the outermost layer of your brain, are not as active [beeping] as normal.

Lower activity in your prefrontal cortex makes it harder to process moment-to-moment information [doorbell buzzes, phone rings] and react to your surroundings. What’s more, reduced signaling in the visual [zip] cortex and intraparietal [zip] sulcus challenges your ability to integrate visual information [zip up] and coordinate it [zip down] with your movements.

Diminished activation across the parietal cortex hinders [clink] your capacity [tick-tock] to keep track of temporary information [zip]. It also disrupts your ability to retrieve [swish] old memories and learn new [woosh] information. When all these areas slow down, it may be harder to complete tasks that require your attention and stay [banging] in a good mood.

[Crickets chirping] Sleep deprivation over longer periods of time can reduce your brain’s ability to form long-term memories and hinder your ability to dispose of waste products [bubbling] building up in your brain.

Even if you may not [beeping] feel tired or sleepy, it could take days [swishing] for your body to fully recover from lost sleep, which may be a good enough reason to stop scrolling and [crickets chirping] aim for a full, seven-to-eight-hour night’s rest.

[Light splash, swoosh, light splashing]