It seems like everyone is suffering from sleep deprivation.

We work too much and sleep too little and wonder why we feel fatigued and annoyed. The lack of sleep not only effects your daily functioning but can effect your memory retention and lead to problems in your concentration.

Men need to stop wearing their sleep deprivation as a badge of honor, via @esquire https://t.co/ikFToXF10D #SleepRevolution

— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) April 21, 2016

When we reduce the amount of time we sleep we impair the production of important proteins that promote memory and cognition. The lack of sleep is something that, if not due to a sleep disorder, can be changed by improving your sleep hygiene. A qualified sleep therapist can help you achieve better sleep by consulting with you to assess your issues that prevent you from sleeping through the night.

If you fall into the category of an individual with a sleep disorder, your sleep cycles may be disrupted despite having slept throughout the night. Those who suffer from sleep apnea have disrupted sleep cycles that show little to no REM sleep. When suffering from sleep apnea for a significant period of time we see people with problems with their memory, concentration and spatial reasoning.

Researchers at McGill university have seen that disrupting REM sleep in mice erased object place recognition and impaired fear-conditioned contextual memory. This type of memory helps us find our way home. If your REM sleep is disrupted nightly you will have more difficulty with tasks like remembering where you parked or learning a new route.

The following video shows a person trying to change his sleep pattern to a polyphasic sleep pattern that consists of multiple phases of sleep throughout the day. This leads to sleeping for a smaller amount of time, that some claim increases focus and creativity. What ends up happening is he starts getting forgetful and starts feeling ill after sleeping for less than what was normal for him. It’s an interesting view on how little time it takes of sleeping poorly to experience serious consequences that effect your daily life.

Sleep deprivation can effect you after one night. When experiencing sleep deprivation and/or disrupted sleep over a longer period of time, significant impairment can be seen in your memory and concentration. If you feel that you are suffering from a fuzzy brain due to your sleep, or lack thereof, qualified sleep specialists can help you improve and diagnose sleep disorders that may be disrupting your sleep cycles.