Sleep deprivation leads to false memories

German researchers found that the probability of false memories increases after a sleepless night. Coffee helps to partially remedy the situation. Researchers at the University of Lübeck, asked for volunteers lists of words to learn a unified theme. Then a group had the opportunity to sleep in, and the others spent the night without sleep. Afterwards, both groups showed the same list, but with a few words on the same subject, and asked to recall which of these words have been proposed for storage. The frequency of false memories was significantly greater among participants in the experiment are not sleeping. Moreover, in some cases, they were much more confident in the wrong choice, as in the right. According to study leader Suzanne Dikelmann (Susanne Diekelmann), these false memories are not formed during the actual sleep, but in the process of retrieving information from memory. This is indicated by the fact that for the next night sleep after a sleepless night, the volunteers re-test required no more mistakes than not deprived of sleep confirmed. Researchers have tried to identify the effect of caffeine on the occurrence of false memories. To do this in a similar experiment, after a sleepless night, some of the volunteers received caffeine, and some - a placebo. In tests conducted in an hour after the administration of caffeine was allowed 10% fewer errors. Dikelmann noted that the understanding of the formation of a false memory is particularly important in matters that accurate memories is, for example, in assessing the evidence in court.