Sleep and memories, what’s the connection?
Have you ever noticed how upon waking up from a good night’s sleep everything seems better? You don’t need nearly as much caffeine hit to feel awake and lucid, thoughts and sentences form easily and flow naturally. Also, you remember things with greater clarity and retention. Indeed, aside from the usual health benefits that span from mental to emotional to physical good sleep also consolidate memories, rendering you more alert and coherent. Human brain in perhaps one of the most sophisticated organs that has the ability to outperform any modern computer. The way our brains process memories is very interesting to say the least. Information that it deems important and valuable is categorized, processed and stored in a special chamber of the brain called Hippocampus.
On a daily basis, especially in today’s time we are constantly bombarded with information, which sometimes leads to an overburdened brain! So, being the sophisticated machine that it is, useless junk is edited, deleted and removed from the brain’s central processing unit! That is not to say that errors don’t happen. There are those odd, random bits of entirely useless and pointless information that gets stored in the deepest recesses of the brain and resurfaces years later inexplicably, we’ve all had those moments when we recalled the color of the school bag some random classmate used to have years ago, or the flowers a neighbor used to grow in his little garden some twenty years ago! Memories are what make us; without it we are reduced to nothing. This phenomenon is dramatized heavily in movies where a character suffers from amnesia and cannot recall any memory of his life. He or she is then entirely lost and at the mercy of those around. Such scenes are often followed by plots where the amnesiac dreams of details about lost memories during sleep. Indeed sleep plays a great role in strengthening memories!
Students take note: sleep well for your studies to succeed
Most of us have done it as students- Stay awake all night to study for a test that slipped off of your mind entirely, cram as many chapters as possible to forcefully learn just to pass in the exam next morning! Many students swear by this method and claim that it got them through college! Some rely on it for hopes of better retention and clarity. But sleep experts beg to differ. A restful night’s sleep is healthy, needless to say, for more reasons than one. For one thing it allows the brain to rest and restore at its own pace instead of hastening the process. Secondly, it allows the body to rejuvenate and function properly. While youngsters at the peak of their health may be able to get by with four hours of sleep once or twice a week, in the long run it’s hardly feasible.
Human brains also have its limitations; when the body is tired, the brain is constantly sending signals to all parts of the body to shut down shop and get some sleep. In that stage, which is how most of us are at night, college students even more so, the brain is also preparing to hit the sack. Meaning, its ability to learn and process information gets seriously impaired. While once or twice a month it can be done, pulling all-nighters is really not recommended by sleep experts as a permanent solution for students. It also has severe side effects such as chronic insomnia, an irregular Circadian rhythm, depression, anxiety and so much more. Studying in the evening instead will help retention, understanding and facilitate learning greatly.
Sleep acts as a carrier to let-in long-term memories
A good night’s sleep reinforces whatever information our brain has received throughout the day, filter, edit, store and delete it. We know that by now. The other amazing thing it does is to strengthen our long-term memories so we can recall them years later from now. Latest research has shown that it happens when we sleep deeply and soundly. According to Matthew Walker, professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley “MRI scans indicate that the slow brain waves of stage 3 sleep (deep NREM sleep) “serve as a courier service,” transporting memories from the hippocampus to other more permanent storage sites.” Earlier it was thought that memories are formed in the second stage of sleep, which enhanced retention to 40%. In the past decades, there has been a lot of research in this field that analyzed the correlation between sleep and consolidation of memories, and newer, developed theories reinforce this idea. Hence, whether we realize it or not proper sleep plays a big role in shaping our memories more than we give it credit for!
Here’s our take on how you sleep like a baby without a worry in the world
So, what are steps one can take to get a sound, good night sleep? Firstly, screens must be avoided at least two hours before bedtime. Create a calm, quiet space for sleep that is free of unwelcome noise and distraction. Use heavy, dark curtains in your room to keep out unwanted light. You can use an eye mask too. An early dinner will help the body slow down and get ready for sleep. Listen to soft, soothing music or read a book. A table lamp with a soft light will induce sleep hormones, signaling to your body that it’s time to go to sleep. Drinking a warm glass of milk or chamomile tea will also help. Avoid boozy nightcaps our granny cannot do without!
Alcohol suppresses sleep hormones even though it may seem otherwise, and results in fragmented, disrupted sleep. Lastly, our memories make us who we are; our past life, present situation and daily life is determined by memory in every aspect. Ensuring that our memories are well-preserved and processed is essential, as is coherent retention of it. By getting six to eight hours of sleep at night we can ensure smooth running of our overall system, as they say, being healthy is being wealthy, and he who sleeps well will live well!
Summary finding: If you are not sleeping well or failing to get the required hours of sleep every day, your memories will be the victim along with your health. So, don’t treat sleep as your secondary priority. It comes with all sorts of downsides, which you really don’t want part of.
Resources=
- https://www.med.upenn.edu/csi/the-impact-of-sleep-on-learning-and-memory.html
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