Given that sleep deprivation studies consistently show that short sleep causes neurocognitive deficits, the effects of insufficient sleep on brain health and cognition are of great interest and concern. Here we argue that experimentally restricted sleep is not a good model for understanding the normal functions of sleep in naturalistic settings. Cross-disciplinary research suggests that human sleep is remarkably dependent on environmental conditions and social norms, thus escaping universally applicable rules. Sleep need varies over time and differs between individuals, showing a complex relationship with neurocognitive function. This aspect of sleep is rarely addressed in experimental work and is not reflected in expert recommendations about sleep duration. We recommend focusing on the role of individual and environmental factors to improve our understanding of the relationship between human sleep and cognition.

鉴于睡眠剥夺研究一致表明，睡眠不足会导致神经认知缺陷，因此睡眠不足对大脑健康和认知的影响引起了人们的极大兴趣和关注。在这里，我们认为，实验限制睡眠并不是理解自然环境中睡眠正常功能的好模型。跨学科研究表明，人类睡眠很大程度上取决于环境条件和社会规范，因此逃脱了普遍适用的规则。睡眠需求随着时间的推移而变化，并且因人而异，与神经认知功能存在复杂的关系。睡眠的这个方面很少在实验工作中得到解决，也没有反映在关于睡眠持续时间的专家建议中。我们建议关注个人和环境因素的作用，以提高我们对人类睡眠和认知之间关系的理解。