Prioritize Sleep to Optimize Cognition
Getting sufficient sleep is critical for memory and cognitive function.
When we have new experiences or learn new things, our brain cells fire together in networks. While we sleep, these networks of brain cells are reactivated in a process called memory consolidation. With similar experiences, or more practice or exposure, these networks fire and wire together, working to help us develop expertise.
Becoming more knowledgeable or skilled requires an adequate amount of sleep to promote memory consolidation. These memory consolidation brain cell networks are in a brain structure called the hippocampus.
New research has helped scientists further understand the theory of sleep in the process of building brain capacity. Researchers implanted electrodes in the hippocampi of mice so they could record brain cell activity during active learning and during sleep.
They discovered that during sleep, the memory consolidation process alternates between periods of intense activity in the same brain cells that were active during learning, followed by quiet periods where these networks of cells were at rest. They believe these rest periods act to reset the brain cells so that they have the capacity to take on additional learning the next day.
Takeaway: Getting enough sleep is imperative to allow the brain to cycle through the memory consolidation activation, and the restorative rest periods, necessary for optimized cognitive function.
Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix.
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Source
Lindsay A. Karaba, et al,, A hippocampal circuit mechanism to balance memory reactivation during sleep | Science, Aug. 15, 2024.
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