For more than a century, the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus hypothesized about the benefits of sleep on memory improvement. Unfortunately, his study of learning during sleep showed some anomalies in the results could not explain, so he rejected the possibility. Forty years later thanks to the work of Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924) ‘the effect of sleep’ was demonstrated firsthand the importance of sleep on memory.
Every day our brain is bombarded with millions of data that must be processed, but as in practice, not all data are useful, many are discarded almost instantly. Other most important are stored for later use. We do this most of the time unconsciously; however, there are times when we have to record information regardless of its usefulness, for example for a test.
This is where the conflict between our desires to store a data begins and what our brain to store, however much we want to store information, if our brain considered useless, remove it, but if we convince our brain that that data is valuable, you can reach the store for a long time. Unfortunately, to give value to the information that we do many things in parallel, among others insist on reading some notes, making sketches, etc.
You may be interested to read another article on LifeStyleQA: The Best Foods for a Good Night’s Sleep
Several studies are currently supporting the idea that sleep is a very productive therapy memory loss. However, on the other hand some studies also speak of the fact that learning a concept in the morning and stay awake during the day causes greater loss information. Such as the study by Kimberly M. Fenn and David Z. Hambrick, in which we show that if we retain data long-term, after learning no longer have to keep bombarding the brain with more data, otherwise rather, go to sleep to process information and consolidate learned for long.
Learning while sleeping could be possible through some unconscious memory, we do not understand all that well. However, according to a study by the researchers at the State University of Michigan, and as they say, “We believe that we may have investigated, distinct from traditional memory systems separate memory” – said Kimberly Fenn, assistant professor of psychology and principal investigator of the project. “There is substantial evidence that during sleep the brain is processing information without your awareness and this ability may contribute to memory in a waking state.”
In the study conducted with more than 250 people, Fenn and Zach Hambrick, associate professor of psychology suggest that people get different effects of this “memory of the dream,” the ability to substantially improve some memories, while others seem to have differences . This capability would be a new form of memory previously defined.
You may be interested to read another article on LifeStyleQA: 10 things you can do at night to wake up beautiful in the morning
“You and I could go to bed and sleeps while the same time,” – Fenn said, “but while your memory may increase substantially, there can be no change in mine.” – But he added that most people in the study they showed improvement.
Fenn also said he believes this potential separate memory ability is not being captured by traditional intelligence tests and aptitude tests such as the SAT and ACT.
“This is the first step to investigate whether it is possible to build a new memory-related outcomes such as classroom learning,” – he said.
This reinforces the need for adequate sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, people sleep less each year and 63 percent said they do not sleep enough during the week. So, only with improved sleep could improve attention in class, says Fenn.
The upshot of all this is obvious: not only should sleep more to maintain better health , but also to benefit from the apparent form of memory linked to sleep, with the result of improving our total capacity of learning and memory.
Leave a Reply