This article describes the importance of sleep in order to recharge and reset the brain in order to learn effectively. Neuroscientist Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin has concluded in her research that sleep is beneficial for restoring energy as well as "solidifying memories by replaying information learned during the day." In addition to this, the article explains that sleep is necessary for clearing overloaded and overused synapses. In an awakened state, the brain contains many brain chemicals, called glutamate receptors, that play critical roles in strengthening synapses for memory and learning purposes. However, if the brain does not get enough sleep, it must expend its energy strengthening old synapses while forfeiting up the opportunity to create new ones. Researchers have concluded that REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep and in particular, slow-wave sleep, are critical elements needed to clear the brain of its old memories. Neuroscientist Gina Poe even conducted a study and discovered that during its REM sleeping stage, the brain deactivates its brain chemicals, norepinephrine and serotonin, which are essentially synapse stabilizers. By doing so, the brain removes its old synapses in order to create room for new memories.
Link to the article: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38692/title/Sleep_makes_room_for memories
4 comments:
Interesting. I think we all kind of knew that sleep (especially REM sleep) recharged the body and resulting in a net gain of energy (even though it isn't really energy). But I've never thought about the energy expenditure to repair those damaged synapses as a net loss before.
Oh, and could you make a link to the article available in the write-up, Preston?
I agree with Martin - I think this whole concept is very interesting. I had never really thought about what sleep actually does for someone. You always hear that you need sleep for energy, but never about the replaying of memories and the repairing of damaged synapses. It provides a different way of looking at sleep.
While reading your article, I thought about times when I tell myself to remember something for the next day or when I study right before I go to sleep, I usually remember it very well when I wake up. It's really cool that the brain has such a system in place as memory filing. It's kind of like spring cleaning every time you sleep. I've sometimes heard that too much sleep is a bad thing, so I wonder if 'oversleeping' has any effect on the brain's removal of old synapses?
This is very interesting. We spent a long time talking about this last year in Psych, and we never really got a straight answer. There are lots of theories floating around about why we need sleep, and this one makes a whole mess of sense. It also explains things like REM rebound--when you get more REM sleep if you've been deprived of it for some reason. According to this theory, it seems like you'd experience REM rebound because, quite simply, it takes more time to clear out the old synapses. I think this is a very interesting line of research, but I do think there's much more that can be done to fully sort out what's going on up there when we sleep.
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