In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, scientists found caffeinated sleep-deprived individuals make as many mistakes performing a complex task as people who are sleep deprived but non-caffeinated. The complex task was meant to simulate real-world scenarios in which people need to make many decisions in a certain order, such as performing surgery, flying an airplane, or operating heavy machinery. Kimberly Fenn, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University, told CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald that while caffeine helped with an attention task, it did nothing to help those who were sleep-deprived in the more complex procedural task. She said it is important that people remember caffeine is not a replacement for a good night’s sleep.
