Want to improve your memory? Sleep for at least eight hours

An eight hour sleep can help you remember things better!

By: Editorial Team | | Updated: November 25, 2015 2:50 pm

Do you often walk into a room and forget why you went in there in the first place? Happens to most of us. But that doesn’t mean you are losing memory or have become forgetful.It could simply mean that you are not getting enough sleep. A new research says that a good night’s sleep improves different kinds of memories. The study analysed people who found it difficult to remember names and faces and found that an eight-hour sound sleep helped them remember names and faces better.

Various studies have previously tested the effect of sleep on memory but the researchers say that this study is different because it studies the impact of a full night sleep in between learning and being tested. Jeanne F Duffy, an associate neuroscientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) said that when participants were given the opportunity to have a full night’s sleep, their ability to correctly identify the name associated with a face – and their confidence in their answers – significantly improved.(Read: Boost your memory with these food items)

How was the study conducted?

Participants were tested in a controlled environment at BWH’s centre for clinical investigation. They were asked to memorise 20 photos of different faces with corresponding names from a database of 600 colour photos of adult faces. After 12 hours, they were again shown those 20 photos either with correct or incorrect names. Apart from identifying the right name with the associated photo, they were also asked to rate their confidence levels on a scale of one to nine. When the participants were allowed to sleep for eight hours, participants were 12 percent more accurate while matching faces and names. (Read: Boost your memory with this common herb)

What do the findings suggest?

It can be inferred that a sound sleep of at least eight hours after new learning activities improves memory. However, the study was conducted only on 20-year-olds and the findings cannot be applied to people from every age group. But, the researchers would like to explore the implications for people of all ages including older adults. Duffy noted that sleep is important for learning new information. As people get older, they are more likely to develop sleep disruptions and sleep disorders, which may, in turn, cause memory issues. By addressing issues with sleep, we may be able to affect people’s ability to learn things at all different ages, the authors concluded in a paper appeared in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. (Read: 7 home remedies to help boost brain power)

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With inputs from IANS