[tantony]

I have personally experienced this. I went to a concert in NY while living in the midwest. I was a pretty broke grad-student at the time and hence opted not to get a hotel for the night before the return flight. The concert ended late and we reached the airport by around 3:30 AM for a 7AM flight. I think I took some naps at the gate before the flight and got very little sleep on the flights.

I barely remember anything from that night. The concert itself is mostly blank except for one or two moments. I remember some moments of driving late at night afterwards (getting lost at one point) and having a very late night dinner at an IHOP. I barely remember getting on my connecting flight.

Overall a very surreal experience.

Now I make it a point to get proper sleep on such trips. What is the point of doing these things anyway if we don't get to keep the memories?

[EvanAnderson]

I've attempted to use the effect strategically. Not sure if it really worked or not. It's certainly not healthy, and it certainly didn't improve the quality of my work, but I've pushed thru some unpleasant times with an eye toward trying not to form long-term memories by way of sleep deprivation.

[liquid_bluing]

Smart move:

Sleep deprivation facilitates extinction of implicit fear generalization and physiological response to fear - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20889142/

"Clinically, trauma-exposed victims often experience acute insomnia, indicating that such insomnia might provide prophylactic benefits in reducing the development of posttraumatic stress disorder via extinction of the fear-magnifying effects of memory."