Sleep Your Way to Success
By Craig Bida
If you feel as if your memory is slipping away, try sleeping
some more. New research recently published in the journal Learning
& Memory shows that catching enough ZZZs can dramatically
impact your long-term memory and your ability to process new information
and skills. As Claudio Mello, assistant professor at Rockefeller
University and one of the study's authors, puts it, "Sleep and
dreaming are very important for memory; if someone is learning
something new, he or she should go to sleep."
This may sound like common sense and, well, it is. (Who hasn't
heard of the importance of getting a good night's sleep before
an important day or a big exam?) Scientists have long known that
sleep plays a critical role in memory formation, especially during
the rapid eye movement, or REM, intervals. According to Mello,
"This implies that sleeping and dreaming are critical parts of
learning."
Until now, however, it has not been known exactly how
sleep supports memory. To understand this mechanism, Mello and
other researchers focused on a particular gene, zif-268,
that is activated during learning. They exposed rats to new environments
rich in sensory and motor stimuli (including mazes, toys, and
five different flavors of corn flakes) and recorded subsequent
levels of gene expression, or activation. They found that zif-268
became reactivated during subsequent REM sleep, revealing that
the same processes and parts of the brain that are engaged during
learning are reengaged during REM sleep. According to Mello, this
helps the brain process information and creates the complex neural
pathways that constitute memory. Because zif-268 is present
in people as well as in rats, and the impact of sleep deprivation
on our memory capacity is well known, Mello and his fellow researchers
are confident that the same processes also occur in humans.
For night owls and insomniacs, the implications of this research
are alarming. Without adequate REM sleep, nocturnal processing
of information and construction of long-term memory could be compromised.
Because REM sleep episodes happen throughout the night, with the
greatest frequency occurring in the early morning, not getting
enough sleep means foregoing vital REM memory activity. According
to Constantine Pavlides, another Rockefeller University scientist,
"If there is disruption around sleep, the memory trace can be
lost. We need to sleep long enough so that a number of REM episodes
can take place."
Now that this critical gene mechanism has been identified, scientists
are exploring how to artificially activate this gene and others,
which would open up new horizons for enhancing or even manipulating
human memory.
For now, though, one thing is clear: The most important thing
you can do to get ahead might not be to burn those midnight candles,
but instead to simply sleep more. According to Pavlides, "Most
people are cutting back on sleep, but it is a very important process
and a very important part of our whole makeup. It is something
we cannot skimp on."