In today's tumultuous and fast-paced world, sleep is viewed as an indulgence, a luxury, a privilege. Hectic schedules and strenuous jobs have become the bread and butter of the world and simply put, there is no time for sleep. As they famous saying goes, "You can sleep when you're dead!"
However, this should not be the case. Sleep, more than anyone truly realizes, plays a profound role in our lives, and by depriving ourselves of it, we are ultimately contributing to our own cognitive decline.
A study was conducted by study author Jeffrey Ellenbogen, MD, with Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, along with a team of researchers and scientists in order to ascertain the effect of sleep on memory. Forty-eight subjects, between the ages of 18 and 30, participated in this study. They were divided into 4 groups: a wake group without interference, a wake group with interference, a sleep group without interference, and a sleep group with interference. each of these groups were told to memorize a list of 20 pairs of words.
The wake groups were taught the words at 9 am and were tested at 9 pm after remaining awake for 12 hours. The sleep groups were taught the words at 9 pm and were tested at 9 am after a night of sleep. Just before being tested, the interference groups were taught another word list consisting of 20 pairs of words. However, while the first word in each pair was the same on both the lists, the second word was different. This way, the brain's ability to handle competing information was tested, known as interference. The interference groups were then tested on both lists.
The results of the study found that the sleep group without interference had a memory recall which was 12% higher than that of the wake group without interference. Similarly, the sleep group with interference had a memory recall which was 44% higher than that of the wake group with interference. Overall, the study showed that the subjects who slept after learning the new information had a higher memory recall compared to that of the subjects who were awake.
Based on this experiment, one can conclude that sleep does in fact protect memories from interference, and strengthens them as well. This study provides insights into how the sleeping brain interacts with memories, and serves as a reminder for those who tend to overlook the importance of sleep.
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