Sleep on It: How Snoozing Makes You Smarter

by ryanborja | August 4, 2008 at 07:23 pm

1364 views | 7 Recommendations | 22 comments

The latest research suggests that while we are peacefully asleep our brain is busily processing the day’s information. It combs through recently formed memories, stabilizing, copying and filing them, so that they will be more useful the next day. A night of sleep can make memories resistant to interference from other information and allow us to recall them for use more effectively the next morning. And sleep not only strengthens memories, it also lets the brain sift through newly formed memories, possibly even identifying what is worth keeping and selectively maintaining or enhancing these aspects of a memory. When a picture contains both emotional and unemotional elements, sleep can save the important emotional parts and let the less relevant background drift away. It can analyze collections of memories to discover relations among them or identify the gist of a memory while the unnecessary details fade—perhaps even helping us find the meaning in what we have learned.

Key Concepts -

As we snooze, our brain is busily processing the information we have learned during the day.

Sleep makes memories stronger, and it even appears to weed out irrelevant details and background information so that only the important pieces remain.

Our brain also works during slumber to find hidden relations among memories and to solve problems we were working on while awake.

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ryanborja

at 02:03 on August 5th, 2008

Before, what we can do is to make an educated guess about what sleep can give us. This research may only come as a tip of the iceberg. I believe there will be more researches that will prove the benefits of sleeping to us people.

tiha zaman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:29 on August 5th, 2008

ryanborja, I like this story. Wonderful, it justifies my obsession with the snooze land. :)

knittymarisa

at 08:06 on August 5th, 2008

My two-year-old son had been cranky all day, and finally, around 2:30 in the afternoon, he just lay down on the living room floor and fell asleep. I had to wake him up two hours later because we were late for an appointment. First, though, I took advantage of the fact that he wasn't moving to take a picture of his lovely, curly hair.

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IAMARK

at 08:39 on August 5th, 2008

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Option8

at 10:01 on August 5th, 2008

It had been a long day. Waking at 5am EST to board a plane to fly back in time to Las Vegas.

While driving from Las Vegas to Zion National Park in Utah, she fell asleep. The white noise from the landscape and featureless roads was an easy lullaby.

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ikespoor

at 10:33 on August 5th, 2008

My daughter has few states of existence: content, upset, very upset, the occasional happy, and asleep. At this point in her life she was really finding my lap to be a very comfortable place to relax. Sometimes she'll kick and flail her arms in the excitement of life, but sometimes the comfort is too overwhelming and she can't resist falling asleep. And boy, does she know how to sleep.

I've found that my lap and my shoulder are two of her favorite places to fall asleep. Coincidentally, they are also my favorite places for her to fall asleep. What makes me feel like a man? Being the source of comfort and ease for my little girl.

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jgurin

at 10:40 on August 5th, 2008

jgurin

at 10:44 on August 5th, 2008

ckugler

at 10:55 on August 5th, 2008

My family and I had spent the day at a 4th of July celebration. Our kids played through their normal nap times. Jonathan (pictured here) fell asleep on a short train ride and didn't stir until we came home about 45 minutes later.

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JeffHuang

at 12:05 on August 5th, 2008

This is very interesting. I had no idea.

mamacats

at 12:12 on August 5th, 2008

My five year old son takes a nap on a two hour car ride to visit his great-grandparents. Not only is he getting the rest he needs, Mom gets to enjoy a peaceful ride through the country.

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erika8602

at 12:46 on August 5th, 2008

Taking a quick nap at the baseball game.

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Rob Peters

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:59 on August 5th, 2008

Nice article summary. I always find my most creative thoughts come just before I fall asleep...perhaps because my snoozing brain is processing.

debsdigitalmedia.com

at 17:59 on August 5th, 2008

I came home from work one afternoon to find my daughter curled up on the corner of the couch. I couldn't resist grabbing the camera.

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