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A sleep deprived brain is dysfunctional We will all probably encounter sleep deprivation at some point in our lives, whether willingly or unwillingly. Still, if you think staying awake all night is beneficial to your study habits, think again. "Sleep deprivation's effect on working memory is staggering," said David Earnest, PhD, a professor with the Texas A&M College of Medicine who studies circadian rhythms (our 24-hour body clocks). "Your brain loses efficiency with each hour of sleep deprivation." Most people need at least seven to eight hours of sleep at night for the body and brain to function normally. So, if you stay up all night, missing out on the recommended amount of sleep, your brain will be equally as weary -- rendering a sharp decrease in performance for specific learning and memory tasks. All-nighters activate short-term, not long-term memory Let's face it, we only pull all-nighters when we've fallen behind and are trying to rapidly catch up on information or a project. But quickly trying to cram this information into our brains only uses short-term memory -- and long-term memory is what we need to recall and retain most facts. When we try to learn information quickly, we're only enabling short-term memory," Earnest said. "This memory type extinguishes rapidly. If you don't 're-use' information, it disappears within a period of a few minutes to a few hours. Cramming doesn't allow information to assimilate from short-term to long-term memory, which is important for performing well on a project or exam." "As the day progresses into the night, the brain's performance significantly decreases," Earnest said. "So, by studying all night, you're essentially swimming upstream and fighting against your body's natural rhythms. Peak cognitive efficiency occurs much earlier in the day."