3Chraif, M.: The Influence of Sleep Deprivation on Short Term Memory and Attention to Details in Young Students This article defines sleep deprivation as lack of sleep for sixteen hours and above. This deprivation affects one’s performance in real-life activities and also in matters where attention is needed. It also has an effect on short term memory functionality. Chraif (2012) undertook a study that involved 74 male and female students whose age ranged from 19 to 24 years. The objectives of the study included: finding out 1the influence of 24 hour sleep deprivation on short term memory and attentiveness; and demonstration of the importance of sleep in social endeavors. The hypothesis of the study was that: Sleep 1has a statistically significant influence on short term memory and attention to details tasks measured by tathistoscopic tests in young students (p.1053). The participants were supposed to watch a traffic scenario for a second and then identify the images visualized. Sleep deprivation was the independent variable. The dependent variables included any correct or incorrect answers in alignment with the elements recognized by the participants after observing the traffic scenario. The results depicted significant differences between the experimental and control group with regard to the two dependent variables thus confirming the hypothesis. This is because humans enter an activated state as a defense mechanism for sleep deprivation. 2Julian Lim & David F. Dinges: A Meta-analysis of the Impact of Short-Term Sleep Deprivation on Cognitive Variables Lim and Dinges (2010) posit that most research has focused on long-term chronic sleep deprivation and the cognitive failures resulting from the same. Literature depicts a focus on consequences of sleep deprivation (SD) on processes that require attention and complicated real-life undertakings. The effects of SD on Cognitive realms that align with the functionality of the short term memory, processing speed, working memory, and attentional skills have received little coverage. Lim and Dinges (2010) relied on a meta-analysis of 247 articles to conclude about 4the effects of short term SD on short term memory and other cognitive realms stated above. The articles chosen for analysis had to meet specific criteria: healthy adult participants of age 18 and above; sleep deprivation periods of 48 hours or less; at least one dependent measure in the category of the cognitive realms stated above. The independent variable was SD for all the articles that fitted these criteria. Only one objective among the two stated by Lim and Dinges has a connection to the topic “short term memory and sleep:” To find out the 4relative magnitude of the consequences of SD on distinct cognitive realms. In alignment with task performance where cognition is a necessity, these authors found out that short term SD affect simple and short task while long term SD affected complicated tasks that may require long durations. Partial sleep, which involves a restriction on the quantity of sleep every night, had more deleterious consequences of cognitive functionality than SD in its entirety. Jie Zhang: Memory Process and the Function of Sleep This article introduces a new type of memory that acts as a bridge between the STM and long term memory (LTM). Zhang (2004) defines this as the place where information is saved when humans are awake. Sleep ensures that data in the temporary memory is encoded before being transferred into the long term memory. The temporary memory explains the many mysteries associated with sleep, memorization, and dreams. The short term memory is also called the working memory. Zhang uses two cases to explain the operation of short term memory and sleep deprivation. One of the cases involves Randy Gardner, a high school student who broke 6the world’ s record by staying awake for 264 consecutive hours in January 1965. Zhang explains that Gardner slept for only 14 and 40 minutes on his first day after the long SD period, 10 hours and 30 minutes on the second day, and 9 hours on the day that followed. After closely monitoring Gardner, Dr. Dement who was a sleep researcher realized that Garner required less than seven hours of satisfactory sleep in a day. Eventually Gardner had lost only 75 hours of sleep. To explain this, Zhang states that the amount of time needed to clean up the temporary memory is less than the SD duration. Any raw data that remains in the temporary memory becomes sleep deficit for some other time in the future. The implication is that sleep deprivation does not necessarily lead to long sleep hours but the amount of data in the temporary memory determines the quantity of sleep needed and thus the number of hours that one can spend in wake or sleep time. Harini Krishnan, Eric Noakes and Lisa Lyons: 5Chronic Sleep Deprivation Differentially Affects Short and Long Term Operant Memory in Aplysia Krishnan et al (2016) posit that chronic SD has become a common phenomenon in the contemporary world due to social and occupational endeavors. There cognitive consequences associated with this phenomenon in relation to memory functionality. The operant learning strategy is particularly useful in studying the effects of chronic SD on memory. Krishnan et al (2016) studied two patterns of SD and their effects on STM and LTM. The first SD pattern was six hours of SD for two consecutive nights while the second pattern involved 4 hours of SD in three consecutive nights. As per the findings of the study, two consecutive nights of six hours’ SD each had adverse effects on both STM and LTM with the effects on the former persisting for 24 hours. The effects on LTM, however, did not persist after repeated SD periods. The second SD pattern depicted more detrimental effects on STM than LTM. The implication is that the STM is more vulnerable than LTM to the sleep restriction phenomenon. This study approved the aplysia model as suitable for studying the connection between SD and memory configuration.