How lack of sleep effects short-term memory

Lack of sleep, or sleep deprivation, adversely effects brain functions. Recent studies completed in the United States captured the different areas of the brain effected by subjects undergoing sleep deprivation. The studies found that area of the brain responsible for language processing (the temporal lobe) was less active in sleep-deprived participants. The area of the brain responsible for memory, and short-term memory (the parietal lobe) actually exhibited greater activity in sleep-deprived particiants. This is due to the brain compensating for its inability to perform particular functions, thus boosting activity to different areas to complete the tasks that the participants were assigned.
It has been suggested however, that short-term memory may suffer due to the increased production of stress animals resulting from a lack of sleep.

The symptoms commonly associated with a lack of sleep apply to sleep deprivation - exhaustion, fatigue and a lack of physical energy. In turn, these symptoms produce other, more serious symptoms - emotional instability, mood swings, stress, anger and pessimism. There are also outwardly visible symptoms of sleep deprivation, including the slow-down of brain functions as suggested above. The brain's ability to process language and perform complex tasks is seriously inhibited is at tries to access different parts of the cortex to compensate for lack of sleep. Recent studies have also suggested that sleep deprivation can manifest itself as symptoms akin to aging and early-stage diabetes. This is related to the body's ability to metabolize glucose that occurs during sleep.

The signs of sleep deprivation are as described in the symptoms of sleep deprivation above. The standard medically 'prescribed' hours of sleep for a healthy human adult is between seven and eight hours per night. It has been noted that experiment participants who have not slept for more than 19 hours start to show physical signs similar to people with high blood alcohol levels. Extreme cases of sleep deprivation display signs similar to people who have undergone physical overexertion - hernias and muscle fascia tears. The longer the period of sleep deprivation, the greater the visible signs become.