The importance of sleep in daily life

Abstract

Sleep occupies a third of human life and cycles within a circadian rhythm. Sleep is essential for daily functioning and is of fundamental importance for maintaining good health. Despite this, people sleep less and less due to different factors including economic activities, work stress, social demand, erroneous beliefs about sleep, excessive use of electronic devices, long hours of work or rotating shifts, and such circumstances generate conditions in which people sleep less than 7 hours a day, well, sleeping less than 7 hours a day is considered as sleep restriction and restricting sleep only a couple of hours per night can lead to deterioration in health and quality of life, producing a significant decrease in cognitive performance. When the restriction extends to 2 weeks, it can reach levels of impairment that are comparable to 2 nights in total sleep deprivation, resulting in problems in memory consolidation, as well as impaired attention, learning and executive functioning (working memory, cognitive flexibility, self-monitoring, impulsiveness, planning and inhibition, and social cognition). Although the association between sleep restriction and memory disorders is well known, there is insufficient information regarding alterations in executive functions, specifically those of social cognition in subjects with sleep restriction. Social cognition involves those human skills necessary to successfully interact in a social environment and according to recent research, it can be affected if people cannot sleep.