A Systematic Review of the Association Between Chronic Sleep Deprivation and Executive Functioning in Adolescents

Mahi Killekar

A Systematic Review of the Association Between Chronic Sleep Deprivation and Executive Functioning in Adolescents

Author(s)	Ms. Mahi Killekar
Country	India
Abstract	Adolescence is a period of rapid neurodevelopmental change during which sleep needs remain high even as biological, social, and academic pressures increasingly curtail sleep duration. This review synthesises secondary literature examining the association between chronic sleep deprivation and executive functioning in adolescents, drawing on experimental, epidemiological, and neuroimaging research published largely between 2008 and 2026. Executive functions, including working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, sustained attention, decision-making, and planning, depend heavily on a prefrontal cortex that is itself still undergoing structural refinement during the teenage years, a convergence that may make adolescents particularly vulnerable to the cognitive costs of insufficient sleep (Casey et al., 2008; Adolescent Sleep and the Foundations of Prefrontal Cortical Development and Dysfunction, 2022). The review finds consistent evidence that sleep restriction impairs working memory and vigilance, more variable evidence regarding inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, and a growing neurobiological literature implicating dopaminergic signalling, cortisol dysregulation, and synaptic homeostasis mechanisms in these effects (de Bruin et al., 2017; Sleep Deprivation and Insomnia in Adolescence: Implications for Mental Health, 2023). Methodological heterogeneity, including differences in how sleep is measured, how executive function is operationalised, and which populations are studied, appears to explain much of the inconsistency across findings, and research from South Asian and other developing-country populations remains disproportionately scarce relative to the size of the adolescent populations concerned (A Comparative Study of Screen Time, Sleep Duration and Behavioural Disturbances, 2020). The review concludes with a discussion of clinical, educational, and public health implications, including delayed school start times, sleep hygiene interventions, and the case for integrating adolescent sleep health more systematically into paediatric and educational practice.
Keywords	chronic sleep deprivation; executive functioning; adolescents; prefrontal cortex; working memory; school start times; adolescent neurodevelopment
Field	Biology > Medical / Physiology
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-07-17

View / Download PDF File

E-ISSN 2582-2160

doi

CrossRef DOI prefix of IJFMR is 10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads

Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 8 Isu 4 Cover Page Vol 8 Isu 3 Cover Page Vol 8 Isu 2

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

A Systematic Review of the Association Between Chronic Sleep Deprivation and Executive Functioning in Adolescents

Share this