Sleep well to improve memory

Apart from providing rest, night sleep helps students to consolidate the things they learn during the day. Consolidation of memory is widely believed to benefit from sleep. However, recent findings have questioned the extent of sleep-dependent consolidation. To figure out the whether or not sleeping helps the memory to consolidate things better, researchers from America recruited 200 college students. Most of them were not familiar with playing video games, so they were taught to play two games, which required players to attack their enemies. Some of the participants learned how to play the games in the morning, while others learned in the evening. The researchers then tested the participants on the video games 12 hours later and 24 hours later. It was found that those who took part in the morning training sessions showed an average eight-percentage-point improvement in their performance immediately after training. They performed more poorly - scoring four percentage points better - 12 hours later. But they scored 10 percentage points better the next morning. The students who took part in the evening training sessions performed better the next morning after sleeping, than they did after being trained. This indicates that those who learned how to play a video game in the morning or evening did a better job the next day after a night's rest, apparently because their brains were actively absorbing what they'd learnt as they slept. The above findings show that sleep is not just a passive state but is important to improve long-term memory, and therefore it pays to be well rested before an exam.

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