Scientists are now more sure than ever before of the fact that sleep plays a vital role in learning and retention. One needs the ideal amount of restful sleep for optimal performance when it comes to memory, mood, motivation, and more. Sleep is the secret ingredient for cementing new information learned throughout the day and creating connections between existing memories.
There are two basic ways in which sleep influences learning and memory. On one hand, it aids in memory consolidation, which is crucial to making sense of new inputs. On the other hand, not getting enough sleep might make it difficult to concentrate, focus and learn new information.
How learning works
There are three distinct phases involved in the process of learning and retaining new knowledge: acquisition (when new information is introduced), consolidation (when the brain processes solidify learned information to form long-term memories), and recall (when learned information is retrieved from storage). Acquisition and recall occur while you’re awake. Consolidation, in contrast, is underway when you doze off.
How sleep affects learning
Scientists stress the need for a restful night’s sleep before learning things or an intensive study day. The capacity to learn may be diminished by as much as 40 percent when sleep is disrupted. In order to consolidate what you’ve learned and make lasting associations between concepts, experts say, you should get a good night’s rest every night, ideally between 7 and 8 hours.
Because, if you just get, say, 4 hours of sleep every night, your memory is more likely to deteriorate. Naps, however, might be both beneficial and harmful. A 90-minute nap may help with memory, but doing so in the late afternoon or evening might make it more difficult to fall asleep later at night.
The best way to retain newly learned information is to sleep on it. The reason is, as you sleep, your brain works to consolidate the new information you’ve learned, creating associations between new and old memories. You may even come up with inventive ideas or thoughts while you sleep.
Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (USA) have been piecing together the intricate dynamics between sleep and memory. In the long run, this research might lead to novel methods for facilitating learning in the classroom or enhancing memory retention in the elderly.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have discovered that getting some shut-eye before starting to study will assist the brain get ready to start forming memories. “Finally, sleep is crucial after learning because it helps store and solidifies the new knowledge into the brain’s architecture, making it less likely that you would forget it,” says one researcher.
When you go to sleep, your brain progresses through a series of stages (known as the sleep cycle), including light sleep, deep sleep, and dream-rich rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Every cycle goes on for 90 minutes.
The brain seems to be best prepared for the following day’s learning during the non-REM phases of sleep. As aforementioned, it has been estimated that your learning capacity might decrease by as much as 40% if you haven’t slept the night before. You can’t study all night and retain anything, Walker, a UC Berkeley researcher, argues. Hippocampal function, a brain function essential for forming new memories, is negatively impacted by sleep deprivation.
While you are awake, you are forming various memories. Throughout the day, most of them will be forgotten. Dr. Robert Stickgold, a specialist in sleep at Harvard Medical School, says, “When we first acquire memories, they are in a very raw and vulnerable state.”
When you doze off, your brain sorts out all the scattered information. “Sleep appears to be a privileged period when the brain looks back over recent experiences and determines both what to preserve and what not to,” as Stickgold puts it. Further, memories of certain activities, such as playing a song on the piano, have been proven to improve while sleeping.
In the latter phases of sleep, the brain seems to strengthen memories. After then, the most active stage of sleep, known as REM, seems to play a role in forming connections between seemingly unrelated memories. That’s why getting enough shut-eye might aid in finding solutions. Feelings may be tempered by REM sleep’s memory processing of upsetting events.
As a matter of fact, when we get older, our sleeping habits shift. By the time we reach our 30s, a drop in the deep sleep phase is seen. And deep sleep is crucial to maintaining our long-term memory. Individuals over the age of 60 had a 70% decrease in deep sleep compared to young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, according to research by sleep scientist Matthew Walker and colleagues. It was shown that a lack of deep sleep was associated with memory impairment in the elderly.
Stickgold provides additional guidance for younger individuals, notably students. Getting a good night’s rest the night following a study session is just as crucial as getting enough rest the night before. He claims that “you receive very little gain from taking shortcuts” when it comes to sleep and memory.
What happens if you don’t get enough sleep?
Inadequate sleep has been linked to a variety of negative outcomes, such as mood swings, increasing hypertension, and shifts in appetite and body weight. However, sleep deprivation has been shown to impair one’s ability to learn and remember new information.
The inability to maintain concentration and attention without enough rest is a well-documented effect of sleep deprivation. It’s tough to learn anything new if you can’t give your whole attention to it. You may find it challenging to bring up even recent recollections. When your brain’s neurons are overworked, they have a harder difficulty organizing information, making it more difficult to recall previously taught knowledge.
Due to the negative effects of sleep deprivation on the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for forming new memories, the chances of successfully learning anything new might decrease significantly.
So, instead of pulling an all-nighter to cram just before a big test, you just might have been better off sleeping.