The Benefits Of A Good Night’s Sleep

March 2024

It is 3 a.m., and the major test, which will be followed by a violin recital, is in six hours. Even though you have been studying and playing for days, you still do not feel prepared for either. You could have another cup of coffee and spend the next few hours cramming and practising, but you might be better off closing the books, putting the music away, and going to bed.

Despite the fact that sleep takes up roughly a third of our lives, many of us pay it remarkably little attention and care. A fundamental misconception is frequently the cause of this carelessness. Sleep is not a waste of time or a method to unwind after completing all of our crucial tasks. Instead, it is an important function in which your body balances and controls its vital systems, altering breathing and controlling everything from circulation to growth and immune response. Sleep is especially important for your brain, since it receives a fifth of your body’s circulating blood when you sleep. And what happens in your brain while you sleep is a moment of very active reorganisation that is critical to how our memory functions.

We lose 40% of new information within the first twenty minutes, a phenomenon known as the forgetting curve. Memory consolidation, the act of moving information from our transient short-term memory to our more permanent long-term memory, can help prevent this loss. The hippocampus, a fundamental portion of the brain, assists in the consolidation process. The hippocampus is important in the consolidation of long-term declarative memory, such as the facts and concepts you need to memorise for that test, as opposed to procedural memory, like the finger motions you need to perfect for that recital.

There are a few strategies to alter the scope and effectiveness of memory retention. Because the hippocampus is linked to emotion, memories generated during periods of intense emotion, such as stress, will be better remembered. A good night’s sleep, on the other hand, is one of the most important components in memory consolidation.

Sleep is divided into four stages, with slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) being the deepest. Electrical impulses flowing between the brainstem, hippocampus, thalamus, and cortex, which function as memory relay stations, have been seen on EEG devices monitoring humans during these periods. The various stages of sleep have been demonstrated to aid in the consolidation of various types of memories.

Declarative memory is encoded into a temporary store in the anterior region of the hippocampus during non-REM slow-wave sleep. It is then regularly reactivated through a continuous dialogue between the cortex and the hippocampus, prompting its eventual redistribution to long-term storage in the cortex. REM sleep, on the other hand, is linked to the consolidation of procedural memory due to its similarities to waking brain activity.

According to research, sleeping three hours after remembering your formulae and one hour after practicing your scales is the best option. So skimping on sleep not only hurts your long-term health, but it also makes it less likely that you will remember all you learned and practised the night before.

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