However, Dr Neil Stanley, of the University of Surrey, said sleep loss harmed spatial learning, although the brain could rise to the "spatial learning" challenge in the short-term it would struggle eventually.
Poor sleeping patterns are both a symptom of bipolar disorder and can bring the illness on, so learning good sleep hygiene is especially important for young people at genetic risk for the disease.
The researchers said this was unexpected and suggested the sleep deprived rats were quicker to use their senses because their spatial learning was impaired.
In earlier experiments, designed to replicate normal learning, Dr Tononi found that the part of the brain showing most slow-wave activity during sleep was the same as the part that had been activated during the experiment.