Originally published July 15 2005
Sleep improves memory
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study shows adequate sleep helps improve memory function.
These findings, reported in the June 30, 2005, issue of the journal Neuroscience and currently published on-line, might help to explain why children -- infants, in particular -- require much more sleep than adults, and also suggest a role for sleep in the rehabilitation of stroke patients and other individuals who have suffered brain injuries.
"Our previous studies demonstrated that a period of sleep could help people improve their performance of 'memory tasks,' such as playing piano scales," explains the study's lead author Matthew Walker, PhD, director of BIDMC's Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory.
"In this new research, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we can actually see which parts of the brain are active and which are inactive while subjects are being tested, enabling us to better understand the role of sleep to memory and learning."
This process of "memory consolidation" occurs when connections between brain cells as well as between different brain regions are strengthened, and for many years was believed to develop merely as a passage of time.
After a 12- hour period of either wake or sleep, respectively, the subjects were tested on their ability to recall these finger movements while an MRI measured the activity of their brain.
"The cerebellum, which functions as one of the brain's motor centers controlling speed and accuracy, was clearly more active when the subjects had had a night of sleep," he explains.
The end result is that procedural skills -- for example, learning to talk, to coordinate limbs, musicianship, sports, even using and interpreting sensory and perceptual information from the surrounding world -- become more automatic and require the use of fewer conscious brain regions to be accomplished.
"At 12 months of age, infants are in an almost constant state of motor skill learning, coordinating their limbs and digits in a variety of routines.
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