The findings were published recently in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
Other experts not part of the research were quick to point out that sleep loss is dangerous, especially in the long run.
“People wear sleep loss like a badge of courage and say things like ‘sleep is a poor substitute for caffeine,’ but this is not true and can be dangerous,” said sleep medicine expert Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and a spokesperson for American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
“Pulling an all-nighter is the worst possible thing you can do to succeed on a test,” said Dasgupta. “You need good-quality, deep restorative sleep if you are taking a test or performing a complicated task at work.”
The new study just looked at how caffeine counters one night of sleep deprivation, but sleep loss is often chronic, stressed Thomas Roth, director of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
“If you sleep five hours a night, you accumulate sleep debt, so even if coffee helps you on the first day, it will help you less on the fifth day as you accumulate even more sleep debt,” he explained.
