What Role Does Sleep Play On Memory Formation?

This paper examines five different sources of information that addresses information pertaining to wakeful resting or sleeping and the effects it has on memory garnered by experiments performed on humans and animals. Wakeful resting is defined as an individual that has not fallen asleep but has engaged in a period of rest that cuts them off from the distractions of the outside world. Sleep is the bodies natural cycle of rest that suspends the consciousness and allows both the body and the mind to take a break from any stressful activities and recover. By either taking a short wakeful rest or going to sleep after learning new material, memory consolidation in both humans and animals will be improved, and it is not limited to humans that

There have been many experiments performed trying to find the correlation between sleep and memory. One of these experiments has showed that different stages of sleep has different effects on memory for instance, not only has sleep been seen to combine new memory with old long-term memories, but also helps stabilize memory (Born & Rasch, 2013). Using the Memory Interference Test (MIT), Amir conducted an experiment to further confirm the conclusion that the sleep improves a person’s memory. The experiment compared the amount of correctly remembered pictures by a sample people who had eight hours of sleep compared to a sample with only four hours of sleep. The hypothesis is that there is a correlation between the amount of sleep a person

An article in Nature Neuroscience from February 2009 describes an experiment which was conducted regarding sleep and its correlation to memory. Memory was impaired after 35 hours of sleep deprivation weekly and constant shallow sleep. Regular sleep benefits memory as newly stored information is easily encoded. Proper sleep is crucial for processing and retaining new information. Those who suffer from sleep deprivation struggle to maintain new information and with comprehension skills. In order for students to maximize their learning capabilities, they need the proper sleep to be mentally prepared for

In the present study we sought to characterize abnormalities in sleep architecture and quality, in a cohort of patients with medically refractory versus and controlled epilepsy, versus normal healthy controls and to study the effect of sleep parameters on cognitive function in these groups. The main observations made were of significantly longer self-reported and polysomnographic TST in patients with refractory epilepsy in comparison to controlled epilepsy and healthy controls. Sleep architecture was also found to be markedly disturbed among epilepsy patients in both groups, with prolonged REM latencies, and frequent arousals and awakenings although these abnormalities were statistically similar between the groups. Our main observation is that higher total sleep time has a negative correlation with memory and executive function performance.

This article explains the importance of getting the perfect amount of sleep at night. The idea that sleeping for less than five hours or more than nine hours proves to have a negative effect on the human body. Sleep deprivation has a closely related link to memory retention and can cause a person to have trouble with daily task. The author continues to explain that not only is the brain effected by too little or too much sleep, but the rest of the body is also effected. Conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and even depression have links to not getting the perfect amount of sleep. The article concludes with listing tips to get the ideal amount of sleep at night, such as, going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day and limiting the amount of caffeine that is consumed throughout the day.

Both nocturnal and diurnal sleep enhances memory consolidation. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep enhances procedural memory traces, whereas non-REM (NREM) sleep, particularly slow wave sleep (SWS), enhances declarative memory aspects. It is speculated whether an increase in time spent in the NREM stage would provide additional memory benefits. The goal of this research design is to establish whether declarative memory is dose-dependent on the length of the NREM episode achieved during sleep. First, a visuospatial object recognition task and a procedural finger sequence

Sleep is essential for optimal human function. In fact, a lack of sleep can actually affect important cognitive functions, like memory. A 2007 study added to the already substantial evidence that even acute total sleep deprivation impairs attentiveness, working memory, and reaction time in various tasks (Alhola, Polo-Kantola). One such way to further this investigation of the effects of sleep deprivation on memory is through the Memory Interference Test, or MIT. MIT is a program designed by Gaston Pfluegl, Ph.D., and Enrique Lopez, Psy. D., at UCLA to test the memory of students. Along with a memory test, the MIT also anonymously collected the physical states, mental states, and demographics of each student test subject, providing a substantial database through which students can test hypotheses, such as the connection between sleep deprivation and memory. Since the MIT requires short-term memory recall, the hours of sleep a student had before taking the test could have a noticeable effect on his or her performance. An unprecedented study this year found that sleep deprivation may actually even induce false memories, which would certainly impact a student taking the MIT because the test requires the subject to recognize images that have been previously presented to them (Frenda, et al). The hypothesis is that students who slept 8 hours before the test will perform better on the MIT than students who only slept 4 hours. The null hypothesis is that students who had adequate

Therefore, the rapidly developing cognitive functions of infants necessitate even more rapid and consistent sleep cycles to foster their learning. Sleep plays a role in the memory consolidation process when the baby is awake. It has not yet been determined if infants can learn while asleep (Tarullo, Balsam & Fifer, 2011).

“The specific loss of REM (rapid eye movement) phase sleep also results in memory loss (Poriel

zzzzzz...are you tired? I know I am...of writing this paper! In fact most of the kids in class are probably tired too. Surprisingly, according to WebMD, about 20% of Americans get less than six hours of sleep on average a night (1).With all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it is understandable to push sleep off. Harvard University has conducted extensive research, discovering how sleep affects the brain; “given that a single sleepless night can cause people to be irritable and moody the following day, it is conceivable that chronic insufficient sleep may lead to long term mood disorders” (1). Just one night of not sleeping can put one in a bad mood, much less consistent loss of sleep. But how does lack of sleep affect others around us? Sleepiness and sleep deprivation can be accounted for roughly one million car crashes annually in The United States. (Harvard Medical School 1). It is easy to understand that sleep loss is something that affects a majority of the people living in the U.S. and sleep deprivation is something that not only affects us, but affects those around us. Scientists speculate that during the night various sleep cycles playa role on consolidating memories in the mind (Harvard Medical School 3). So knowing that sleep plays such a critical part in the growth and development of our brain, then why do we put it off in order to finish other tasks? And in doing so, what neurological

When the brain first encounters an idea, thought, image, experience, or action it works to form or encode a memory. There are many different kinds of memories that can be formed. Each must be consolidated in order to remain a stable memory. All five stages of sleep support some phase of learning and memory (Poe, Walsh, & Bjorness, 2010). This article discusses the different types of memory, stages of sleep, and what occurs that potentially strengthens memory while sleeping.

Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the

Sleep is vital to give the cerebral cortex (the brain's "thinking" part) a rest. When we’re in a deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) occurs when your eyes move rapidly up for 30 minutes at a time, it continues every 90 minutes. Most of our dreaming happens during REM and our eyes moving forcefully, our bodies are very relaxed and that’s what make us continue to sleep. “One of the most recent and compelling explanations for why we sleep is based on findings that sleep is correlated to changes in the structure and organization of the brain. this phenomenon, known as brain plasticity, is not connection to sleep has several plays a critical implications. it is becoming clear, that sleep plays a critical role in brain development in infants and

The impact of sleep behavior on memory recall is a new topic in psychology study field, but the result of this research will help many researches in the future. Sleep not only brings people physiologically relax but also improve people’s ability on memory recall. 300 undergraduate students in UW participated in an experiment about memory recall test (recall a list of words). The text result and later analysis showed that, after sleeping, students tend to gain higher score in their memory recall test. Students who take a nap(sleep group) before take the memory test have an average 4.5 points higher than students who do not(non-sleep group). The relationship between sleep and memory recall is significant, and p-value is also smaller than 0.01.

There are a few things dealing with sleep, learning, attention, and memory that can improve people’s ability to learn, and remember information in certain college courses. In chapter three it states how sleep helps us to to strengthen our neural fastenings, and also repeats what we learned that day. Another thing sleep does for us is it helps turn the things we learned that day into memories to remember for later. Sleep also helps us to re energize our bodies, and minds for the next day, REM sleep is also something that gets our minds in a deep sleep, and our bodies tend to not wake up as easily during this cycle.