I was in college when I learned that if I crammed for a test and then got a couple hours sleep, that crammed info would still be in my head the next morning. It was a great discovery — I have always been a fan of getting my sleep.
Now a group of neuroscientists have found the first clue to why sleep is helpful for cementing memory. The process here is “cortical plasticity,” or the rearrangement of neurons in the brain after a life experience.
Long story short, there’s a lot more fluid movement of neurons during sleep compared to wakefulness, thanks to a chain reaction that is set off by a “gatekeeper” molecule called the N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). This sets the necessary enzymes to work that reorganize the neural pathways, forming (and reshaping) memories.
Marcos Frank, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, explains:
“To our amazement, we found that these enzymes never really turned on until the animal had a chance to sleep,” Frank explains, “As soon as the animal had a chance to sleep, we saw all the machinery of memory start to engage.”
The whole article is here at Science Codex.
Granted, this study is based on animal research (ethical animal research I should say) and the process of visual memory, but it is a crack in the dam to understanding a key role in sleep for all mammals.
Now go take a nap. You deserve it.
Im trying to find out if you take drugs does this effect your dreams or dreams are just normal?
hi Bo,
sure, all kinds of drugs can affect dreams. many pharmaceuticals repress dreams, and others can increase nightmares. some herbs and supplements can increase dream recall and dream vividness. alcohol can repress dreams as well, and so can cannabis, although this may create a rebound effect later and ironically bring on more vivid and nightmarish dreams than normal.
The link to the original article is not functional… Could you tell me what article you based this on?
hey Jamie,
here’s the link:
http://www.sciencecodex.com/penn_study_shows_why_sleep_is_needed_to_form_memories
Our Dreams works in a silent way, but we can hear a lot of beautiful songs in them. Congratulations for this Website. So much interesting and enthusiastic´ information about the Dream World, not the same old “you can have sex with Pamela A. and bla bla”. Althought my dream web researches began with and always turn to Lucidity Institute and ld4all, this website steps fowards, and became my favorite one.
Sorry for this crazy English writing, sou Brasileiro, with pride (in this World Cup times, hehehe)
Good sunny lucid dreams to everybody!