Just sleep it off. The effects of sleep quality and trait anxiety on working memory.

Abstract

Working memory (WM) is a fundamental cognitive system responsible for the concurrent processing, temporal storage, and manipulation of information. Typical function of WM reflects the capacity to perform sequence-based, goal-oriented tasks; however, interference in this cognitive structure, can extensively hinder task’s performance and completion. Literature suggests that sleep quality and trait anxiety are two of the most prominent factors, that seemingly influence WM’s overall functionality; yet to the best of the researchers’ current knowledge, no study has examined the possible interaction effects of these parameters towards WM. The current research by examining those variables, concluded to partially significant results, indicating that trait anxiety significantly effects WM, to a magnitude proportionate of 26,2%. Similarly, sleep quality significantly affects WM, approximately by 25,1%. However, the interaction effect of trait anxiety and sleep quality on WM, produced non-significant results. Several implications of synergistic and even counteractive effects among these variables are discussed.