Why Sleep is Good for Memory

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Summary: In this study the researchers conducted an experiment with two groups, the sleep group and the non-sleep group.  Each of the participants were shown a word on the screen and asked to later point to where they thought it was.  The sleep group was allowed a 90-minute nap and the non-sleep group did not receive any nap.  The research showed that those who did nap were able to closer show where the word on the screen was compared to the non-sleep sleep group.  Our sleep helps to strengthen our memories.  It keeps the original memory we have but also refreshes it.   As tested in the article, the brain holds onto the old memory and makes a new version of it.  A problem with this could be that our brain could rewire a memory differently.

Relationship to book: As we read in Brain Rules sleep has many benefiting factors for us but especially memory enhancement.  Sleep helps us to refresh our memories from the day and also strengthen them.

Reflection: I enjoyed this article and also believe sleep is vital.  Sleep does help "wash" our brain and help us process the day we had.  It definitely helps strengthen our memories but it could have that negative effect of distorting them.  Regardless, sleep is important for us overall for our wellbeing.

Link: http://neurosciencenews.com/sleep-memory-7953/ 

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 8:33 AM

    Any topic that discusses sleep Is interesting to me. Sleep is such an important factor in life. I constantly find myself in debates with my twin brother about how getting ample amount of sleep will help improve his grades. One can’t stay up all night and expect the brain to take in process and be able to recall of the information learned and studied. One of the most interesting sections in the Brain Rule book was the section on sleep because it discussed how getting enough sleep helps improve cognitive functioning and clarity.

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  2. UnknownApril 26, 2018 at 9:05 PM

    This article connects to the theory discussed in Medina's Brain Rules that the brain is replaying what you learned early that day. This theory was based on how the neurons in the brain shows vigorous activity while a person is asleep. The loss of sleep has been proven to hurt working memory, which hurts learning.This would be a interesting topic to study in college students around the times of big tests.

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  3. Jasmin DealApril 26, 2018 at 10:49 PM

    This article definitely relates to the Brain Rules book. The book said about how a person who has gotten less then six hours for five days exhibits the same cognitive performance as someone who has been withheld from sleep for 48 hours. I think this is an important article for college students because we often lose sleep to study or do homework, but taking a nap before doing the work may be more beneficial.

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