A new research study conducted at the Harvard Medical School has found new evidence that sleep improves the brain's ability to remember information.
Memory is possibly a person's most distinctive characteristic and defines who we are, and acts as a guide to our present and future. Memories endure and the loss of memory, because of diseases such as Alzheimer's or as a result of accidental brain damage, is particularly devastating and distressing.
Psychologists have defined normal human memory into procedural and declarative memory. Procedural memory is used for skills such as how to do something such as riding a bike; while declarative memory is more concerned with knowing that a bicycle is called a bicycle.
Lead researcher Jeffrey Ellenbogen says sleep appears to strengthen memories and makes them resistant to interfering information. Ellenbogen and colleagues studied the influence of sleep on declarative memory in 60 healthy, college-aged adults who did not use prescription drugs and did not have known sleep disorders or abnormal sleep patterns.
The researchers say the finding may be particularly important for people with mentally demanding lifestyles, such as doctors, medical residents and college students, who often do not get enough sleep.
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