Sleep deprivation increases formation of false memory

Abstract

Retrieving false information can have serious consequences. Sleep is important for memory, but voluntary sleep curtailment is becoming more rampant. Here, the misinformation paradigm was used to investigate false memory formation after 1 night of total sleep deprivation in healthy young adults (N = 58, mean age ± SD = 22.10 ± 1.60 years; 29 males), and 7 nights of partial sleep deprivation (5 h sleep opportunity) in these young adults and healthy adolescents (N = 54, mean age ± SD = 16.67 ± 1.03 years; 25 males). In both age groups, sleep-deprived individuals were more likely than well-rested persons to incorporate misleading post-event information into their responses during memory retrieval (P < 0.050). These findings reiterate the importance of adequate sleep in optimal cognitive functioning, reveal the vulnerability of adolescents' memory during sleep curtailment, and suggest the need to assess eyewitnesses' sleep history after encountering misleading information.

Keywords: adolescents; adults; cognitive function; false memory; memory formation; sleep deprivation.

Figure 1

Protocol of Experiment 1. (a) The three groups of participants differed in their sleep history prior to performing the misinformation paradigm. While time in bed (TIB) for the control and the partial sleep deprivation (PSD) groups were 8 h and 5 h, respectively, for 7 nights, the total sleep deprivation (TSD) group followed their habitual sleep schedule for 7 nights before spending an entire night awake at the laboratory. (b) The misinformation paradigm was administered at 10:00 hours after the sleep history manipulation period. Participants were shown two crimes in the forms of photographs (event‐encoding phase) and narratives that might not be consistent with the photographs (misinformation phase). Memory of the crimes was tested in the third phase (memory and source tests). Successive phases of the misinformation paradigm were, respectively, separated by a 40‐min and a 20‐min period during which participants completed the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), and some questionnaires.

Figure 2

Protocol of Experiment 2. Both the control and the partial sleep deprivation (PSD) groups had three baseline nights of 9 h time in bed (TIB), followed by a manipulation period of 7 nights, when TIB was reduced to 5 h for the PSD group but remained at 9 h for the control group. After the manipulation period, the misinformation paradigm was administered.

Figure 3

Performance in the misinformation paradigm in Experiment 1. Mean ± SEM of (a) correct memory rate, (b) misinformation consistent response rate, and (c) false memory rate of the control group (white bar), the partial sleep deprivation (PSD) group (grey bar), and the total sleep deprivation (TSD) group (black bar).

Figure 4

Performance in the misinformation paradigm in Experiment 2. Mean ± SEM of (a) correct memory rate, (b) misinformation consistent response rate, and (c) false memory rate of the control group (white bar) and the partial sleep deprivation (PSD) group (grey bar).