{"id":15269,"date":"2022-07-18T10:59:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T08:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/?p=15269"},"modified":"2022-07-18T10:59:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T08:59:07","slug":"sleeping-serves-as-learning-time-for-our-brain-study-proves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/sleeping-serves-as-learning-time-for-our-brain-study-proves\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleeping Serves as Learning Time for Our Brain, Study Proves"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you thought sleeping was a waste of time, think again! A new study has just revealed that <\/span>sleeping helps the brain store useful information<\/b> by forming long-term memories.<\/span><\/p>\n

More precisely, the study \u2014 published in the <\/span>Journal of Neuroscience <\/span><\/i>\u2014<\/span> describes <\/span>a unique phenomenon<\/b> during sleep known as <\/span>the replay effect<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In essence, replay is a strategy our brain uses to consolidate information and turn short-term memory into long-term. Scientists believe this phenomenon helps mammals learn and perfect new tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, it was only ever proven in lab animal experiments but never on humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, this helps mice learn new maze paths, which can be observed by sophisticated monitoring devices that highlight specific brain patterns when they choose the correct route.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s <\/span>an interesting medical application<\/b> for this, too. Namely, by learning more about this phenomenon, we can gain some much-needed insight that could help us develop assistive tools for people with paralysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, a tetraplegic man (paralyzed from the neck down) at the Massachusetts General Hospital was given a memory computer game operated wirelessly via his brain activity. Sensors were placed in the part of the brain that controls hand movement to monitor progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

During sleep, nothing short of a miracle happened \u2014 the brain cells acted as if they were still playing the game and repeated their previous communications. In other words,<\/span> the replay effect<\/b> was in full swing!<\/span><\/p>\n

This marvel happens during <\/span>deep sleep<\/b> \u2014 one of <\/span>the most important sleep stages<\/span><\/a> for memory consolidation. Actually, the duration of deep sleep, or slow-wave sleep (SWS), is one of <\/span>the <\/span><\/i>most important parameters used to evaluate sleep quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

This study just goes to show how crucial sleep is for <\/span>helping us understand new things<\/b> and how hampering sleep deprivation can be when it comes to learning.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you thought sleeping was a waste of time, think again! A new study has just revealed that sleeping helps the brain store useful information by forming long-term memories. More precisely, the study \u2014 published in the Journal of Neuroscience \u2014 describes a unique phenomenon during sleep known as the replay effect. In essence, replay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15272,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15269\/revisions\/15272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disturbmenot.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}