Stimulants Impair Sleep, Working Memory in Healthy Young Adults

person holding pill(Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network, August 21) Healthy college students and other young adults who take prescription stimulants simply for a brain boost may be doing themselves a disservice, according to a new study that found nonprescribed stimulants barely improved short-term focus and markedly worsened working memory and sleep.

“People who are taking these drugs to perform better in school or at work may feel as though they are doing better, but our data don’t support this feeling,” said study coauthor Sara Mednick, PhD, associate professor of cognitive sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Read more.