You probably know that a lack of sleep can make you feel less than your best, making you drag through the day feeling somewhat foggy-headed.
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That feeling is backed by scientific studies that show that after a night of healthy sleep, or even a good nap, people perform better on memory tests.
Helping your brain learn and recall
It turns out that sleep helps your brain’s ability to learn new things and recall memories. If you don’t get enough, your memory is affected in two ways:
• You can’t focus and learn as well
It’s not fully understood how this affects your memory, but it’s thought to involve your hippocampus and neocortex – two parts of your brain that store long-term memories. Scientists think that when you sleep, your hippocampus replays the day’s events, and the neocortex then processes these memories, storing them for the long-term.
Making memories in different stages
There are several different types of memories, such as the ability to remember rote facts, and the ability to recall something that happened to you, like your first kiss. When you learn something like playing the guitar, yet another type of memory is involved.
Scientists think that different types of memories are made in different stages. Some are secured when you’re in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage, when you dream. Others are made in deeper stages.
There’s still a lot of specifics that we don’t understand about how memories stick in our brains to be recalled later, but scientists are sure of this: sleep isn't a luxury, it’s a necessity that affects many parts of our lives, including memory.
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