People Learn While They Sleep, Study Suggests
Considering the enormous class emphasis on memory, I found a recent article regarding a ‘different kind’ of memory, one rooted in sleep. The study mentioned did not identify what kind of memories improve with sleep, but instead focused on how the conscious and unconscious processes of memory are linked, and how much more productive the unconscious version may be. It would seem that it is significantly more.
(See the study abstract here.)
It has been known for a while that while the conscious mind is sleeping, the rest of the brain is working to consolidate and store away the day’s data and experiences. My last psychology teacher always told his students to do a little extra studying right before falling asleep, that the information would then be rolling around in the mind all night, and hopefully have stuck by morning. I would often use this tactic the night before biology tests and end up dreaming of mitosis and mRNA, and then continue mulling over such subjects all through my routine the next morning while still far too groggy for such complex mental processes.
The short article does not actually describe what ‘memory’ they are speaking of in any real way, or offer any sort of definition for us, but perhaps it is this sort of ‘memory’ that they have discovered and are now working to explore.
12 comments:
After I read the study's abstract, I was interested in what they called "offline" cognitive processes. In a study by Smallwood et al., scientist measure pupil diameter to find evidence for the decoupling of attention and perception input during offline thought processes. Evidence has been found that internal (offline) and external processes can both be processed by the brain. Decoupling is used so that one kind of thought processes does not interrupt the other. Their data was consistent with the decoupling in that it allows offline processes to happen with little disruption from the world around us. The process of decoupling might be similar to what happens when we go to sleep every night
Link to complete study:
http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~complex/pubs/SmallwoodBrown_Decoupling_joined.pdf
Link to abstract of study:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0018298
This article reminded me of an episode of NOVA that I had seen about dreaming. One of the more memorable parts of the episode looked at the work of scientist Matthew Wilson of MIT. You can read about him in MIT's news article here:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/profile-wilson.html
In his study Wilson was able to look at the dreams of rats after they had run through a maze. What he saw was amazing- the rats were running through the maze in their dreams as they slept. This gave further evidence to the idea that neural reactivation happens during slow wave sleep (stages 1 and 2 of sleep in which unimportant information from the day is thrown out and REM sleep (during which important information is stored in your long-term memory). By comparing the "firing patterns" of sleeping rats to rats that were awake, Wilson was able to even identify the location of the rat in the maze.He hopes to take these new developments one step further so that he can learn exactly how dreams impact learning.
After an experiment involving cats and sleep, researchers at the University of California hypothesize that neural changes might occur in human brains during sleep. Chemicals released in the brain during sleep enhance our waking experience. They found that slow-wave sleep, as opposed to REM sleep, might have a larger effect on learning and memory. The study showed that getting enough sleep early in life is very important to development.
Article: http://www.nature.com/news/1998/010426/full/news010426-15.html
Abstract: http://www.cell.com/neuron/retrieve/pii/S0896627301002793
Reading this article conjured up memories of cartoons I had seen as a child where the main character falls asleep with a record playing and waking up with the contents of the record burned in their brain. In this article from the American Journal psychology they discuss how testing for material learned during sleep is not likely to be recalled. In the experiment described in the article, they discuss how the sound of the played material often awoken the subject rendering the test incomplete. The subjects were asked to right down any words they might have heard during their sleep when they first woke up and 20 minutes after waking up. The results of the experiment showed no evidence that auditory material could be recalled when heard during sleep.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1418117
This post correlates to something a friend of mine recently told me: that listening to music while you sleep causes excess stress in the brain, which ultimately takes years off one's life.
I was unable to find an article or study related to this idea, only forums all asking if it was bad for you. However, to me it seems a valid idea, if a complex outside noise, such as a pop song, not necessarily white or ambient noise, is leaked into a sleeping brain, the brain has to work harder to both identify this as outside noise and try and eliminate it from consciousness, this extra work, both physical and cognitive, creating the extra stress.
Ive been pulling all nighters pretty much everyday this year and not getting enough sleep is definitely not fun. However, the article also made me wonder what if we get too much sleep, or rather "hypersomnia" ? Would there be a negative effect to our body/health?
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/physical-side-effects-oversleeping
This article writes that oversleeping is linked with a number of medical issues such as heart disease and diabetes, and further suggest that depression and low socioeconomic status are two other major factors that has to do with this illness.
I found this article in the NY Times that continues on what you've already said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/health/23iht-snsleep.1.8015084.html
It seems that memory is most effected by less sleep. This article goes on to say that inspiration and creativity is even effected by a lack of sleep. This is interesting based on the amount of students who pull all nighters and generally don't get much sleep at all here at Pratt. My professors encourage me to sleep less and work more but I wonder if its really a quality vs quantity thing.
This is a very interesting idea, especially considering how little we understand about the nature of dreams (which tend to accompany sleeping, possible substance use aside). I would imagine that the information gained immediately prior to sleep, or while sleeping, would likely become distorted through the mental processes that occur during sleep. I don't know if Freud is a valid source to cite in this context, but his theory of dreams and their analysis dealt entirely with the way our brain re-structured, re-arranges, and distorts factual information. So, while the study might show that we retain information better, we should keep in mind that tere's a risk of us remembering something quite different from what we actually learned.
My first thought upon reading this article was "well, that makes sense," though I personally don't sleep very much at all. It made me wonder just how harmful it is to cognition to NOT sleep for long periods of time (such as finals week for Pratt. heh)
According to this article, it's not about how MUCH you sleep (though clearly from other articles it does help to sleep more) but if your sleep is interupted, especially from its natural cycle. A fluctuation in sleep time, a disturbance during deep sleep, etc cause a lapse in neurobehavioral functioning. So, it's important to maintain a sleep schedule as well as sleeping consistently through it.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111123133346.htm
after reading this article i thought about how overnight therapy can be helpful for people who have psychological problems. The Article says during REM sleep, our stress chemistry shuts down and brain processes emotional experiences and takes the edge of difficult memories. So is it possible to change or manipulate the memories? We already know that memory can distort itself within experiences and collective memory. So if dreams can be manipulated or at least with a therapy can be shaped with the environment, light and sound conditions, can our dreams actually help us to get rid of our negative emotions and effects of bad memories or traumas? so ovvernight therapy i think might be useful way to treat people who suffer from depression etc.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111123133346.htm
after reading this article i thought about how overnight therapy can be helpful for people who have psychological problems. The Article says during REM sleep, our stress chemistry shuts down and brain processes emotional experiences and takes the edge of difficult memories. So is it possible to change or manipulate the memories? We already know that memory can distort itself within experiences and collective memory. So if dreams can be manipulated or at least with a therapy can be shaped with the environment, light and sound conditions, can our dreams actually help us to get rid of our negative emotions and effects of bad memories or traumas? so ovvernight therapy i think might be useful way to treat people who suffer from depression etc.
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