It is obvious to most of us that if you have too little sleep, it is harder to concentrate and so it becomes more difficult to study and learn. But did you know that sleeping before you study helps you learn more easily. And sleeping after you study helps you remember your work better. Let’s try and understand why.
How do we learn?
The theory of learning and memory is often described using three stages:
Acquisition and recall takes place when we are awake, but many consolidation processes take place during sleep. If learning is not consolidated into memory, we are likely to forget what we have learned.
What are the main stages of sleeping?
Sleep helps you learn more
The facts and information we learn are temporarily stored in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. This is a short-term storage facility which has limited capacity - a bit like the RAM, short-term memory on your computer.
If the hippocampus is full, it is difficult to learn new information without losing the other stuff you’ve been studying. But our brain has a solution, which takes place during the light non-REM stages of sleep. Information stored in the hippocampus is cleared and sent to a more permanent storage site. This creates the space you need so you can learn more.
IMPORTANT SLEEPING TIP: The middle to last few cycles of our night’s sleep are when we experience the longest stretches of light non-REM sleep, so it is important that you regularly aim for between 7 to 9 hours sleep to make sure can always easily acquire new information.
Sleep helps you remember better
According to scientists, sleep can improve your ability to remember information by between 20 and 40 percent! The more deep non-REM sleep you get, the more easily you will remember what you have learned.
This type of sleep also is crucial for transporting facts and information from your hippocampus (short-term, temporary memory site) to your cortex (long-term, more permanent memory site).
IMPORTANT SLEEPING TIP: Deep non-REM sleep occurs during the first part of your night’s sleep. It is therefore very important to go to bed regularly at a reasonable time. If you go to bed too late, you will have too little of the much-needed deep sleep and this will affect your ability to remember. Caffeine drinks after 3 o’clock in the afternoon will also mess up the quality of your deep sleep.
Sleep helps you solve problems and think creatively
REM sleep, which is the sleep stage where you dream, can improve your ability to think critically and creatively. It does this by building your associative memory. During this stage of sleep, your different memories may become connected, providing you with different ways in which to consider and solve complex problems when you wake.
IMPORTANT SLEEPING TIP: REM sleep takes place in your last few sleep cycles so make sure you get a full night's sleep to experience the longer REM stages. Alcohol prevents REM sleep so be careful not to drink when studying is your priority.
Sleep helps you to focus
Probably one of the worst things you can do is stay up late cramming for a test or exam.
When our brain is tired from a lack of sleep, the neurons, which make up the brain, do not function optimally. As a result, not only is it more difficult to concentrate and acquire information, but it is also much harder to access information that you have previously learned.
Sleep deprivation also affects our emotions and mood negatively. And if we experience emotional dysregulation, our ability to receive and retain information declines.
So, get enough sleep to learn more easily
Regular, good quality sleep is essential for learning and remembering. Apart from giving you the ability to focus while studying and writing tests or exams, it actually helps with storing what you’ve learned in your long-term memory and strengthens your ability to be a more creative and innovative problem-solver.
REFERENCES
Capello, K. The Impact of Sleep on Learning and Memory. 2021. https://www.med.upenn.edu/csi/the-impact-of-sleep-on-learning-and-memory.html
Mander et al. Wake deterioration and sleep restoration of human learning. 2011. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2811%2900042-X
Paller et al. Memory and Sleep: How Sleep Cognition Can Change the Waking Mind for the Better. 2021. https://www.annualreviews.org/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1146%2Fannurev-psych-010419-050815
Potkin, KT & Bunney WE Jr. Sleep improves memory: the effect of sleep on long term memory in early adolescence.2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3413705/
Rasch, B & Born, J. About sleep's role in memory. 2013. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768102/
Walker, MP. The role of slow wave sleep in memory processing. 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824214/
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