We know it can make you grouchy, raise your blood pressure, cause you to gain weight, and even facilitate Alzheimer's disease. Now we have just learned that lack of sleep can affect your memory severely.

A study of more than 1,000 adults showed that 25 percent of those who spend less than five hours in the land of Nod suffer from memory malfunction which affects their quality of life.

Participants aged 18 to 80 were asked to measure their sleep against five different “everyday” memories: having to check whether they’ve done something; forgetting to tell somebody something important; where things are normally kept; doing something they intended to do such as posting a letter and finding it difficult to concentrate.

Poor sleep was classed as under five hours a night and the results found that all aspects of memory are affected by low levels of sleep.

The most commonly reported memory failure was having to check whether they had done something with 50 percent struggling with this problem at least once a week, but the figure rose to two-thirds for poor sleepers.

This was closely followed by people forgetting to do something they intended to do – a weekly problem for 44 percent rising to 60 percent for those who slept for under five hours.

Forgetting where things are kept was a weekly problem for 25 percent of respondents though when they had slept poorly it drastically increased to two-thirds.

Half of poor sleepers surveyed said they “regularly” struggled with concentration in relation to their working life illustrating the profound effect lack of sleep has on everyday memory and wellbeing.

On average, those who slept for less than five hours a night were 25 percent more forgetful than those who slept for longer.

The independent academic research by psychologists at the University of Leeds looked at the effects of sleep on memory and how people function day-to-day, outside of a lab, among the general public.

Dr. Anna Weighall, a developmental cognitive psychologist with expertise in sleep research who led the study said: “Good sleep leads to improved memory performance and this leads to a better quality of life.

“It has long been said this is the case and we have noticed such findings in a lab, but this is the first time we have gone out to people in their everyday lives and achieved measurable results.

“It proves to us beyond doubt that those people getting a good night’s sleep can potentially have a better quality of life and hopefully, as a result, be happier.

“Of course, there are other factors affecting memory over and above sleep, but at this stage they are poorly understood and could be difficult to change. This is not the case with sleep and there are many things we can do to improve it.”