Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Current studies demonstrate that a healthy sleep produces a significant learning-dependent performance boost. [3] [4] The idea is that sleep helps the brain to edit its memory, looking for important patterns and extracting overarching rules which could be described as 'the gist', and integrating this with existing memory. [5]
Sleep-learning or sleep-teaching (also known as hypnopædia or hypnopedia) is an attempt to convey information to a sleeping person, typically by playing a sound recording to them while they sleep. Although sleep is considered an important period for memory consolidation , [ 1 ] scientific research has concluded that sleep-learning is not possible.
Young woman asleep over study materials. The relationship between sleep and memory has been studied since at least the early 19th century.Memory, the cognitive process of storing and retrieving past experiences, learning and recognition, [1] is a product of brain plasticity, the structural changes within synapses that create associations between stimuli.
Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with the surrounding environment.
One of the important questions in sleep research is clearly defining the sleep state. This problem arises because sleep was traditionally defined as a state of consciousness and not as a physiological state, [14] [15] thus there was no clear definition of what minimum set of events constitute sleep and distinguish it from other states of partial or no consciousness.
Sleep deprivation also has a documented effect on the ability to acquire new memories for subsequent consolidation. A study done on mice that were sleep deprived before learning a new skill but allowed to rest afterward displayed a similar number of errors on later trials as the mice that were sleep deprived only after the initial learning. [46]
Memory consolidation was first referred to in the writings of the renowned Roman teacher of rhetoric Quintillian.He noted the "curious fact... that the interval of a single night will greatly increase the strength of the memory," and presented the possibility that "... the power of recollection .. undergoes a process of ripening and maturing during the time which intervenes."
Deficient sleep patterns are prominent in many psychiatric ailments. [18] Insomnia increases the risk of a depressive episode, sleep deprivation influences the onset of hypomania, and sleep disturbance contributes to the maintenance of mood disorders. [19] Amongst manic bipolar patients, sleep loss may act as a trigger in the onset of a manic ...