Why sleep is a key to good memory
It turns out activity
in our brains during sleep is important to good memory. According to a recent study, "During deep sleep,
older people have less coordination between two brain waves that are important
to saving new memories."
Key
points:
- The coordination mentioned above is "the interaction between slow waves, which occur every second or so, and faster waves called sleep spindles, which occur more than 12 times a second."
- In the study, "performance was determined by how well their slow waves and spindles had synchronized during deep sleep."
The
bad news about "the lack of coordination associated with aging: atrophy of
an area of the brain involved in producing deep sleep."
A next
step in the research involves "applying electrical or magnetic pulses
through the scalp…to boost those brain waves and bring them back
together."
Meanwhile,
what can we do about it in our own lives? Here are some tips while we're
waiting on the research:
