The effects of sleep deprivation on memory and arousal and the use of a nootropic drug to reverse those effects were investigated. Three groups of rats were used: a nontreatment group, an ephedrine-injected group, and a saline-injected group. All groups were taught a lever-press task in an operant chamber. The ephedrine and saline groups were deprived of sleep 24 hr prior to the learning task and were administered ephedrine or saline 15 min before the session. Four hr later, all groups were tested in the operant chamber for their memory of the learning task. Although the results of this study revealed significance in learning performance as time increased, no significance was found between group learning performance or between group memory performance. It was concluded the mechanisms of arousal and memory may be similar. It was also determined that the claims made for and against ephedrine as a nootropic drug are inconclusive.