It is 4:00 am, and the main test is in eight hours, followed by a piano narrative. You have been studying and playing for days, but you still don't feel ready. So, what can you do? Well, you can have another cup of coffee and spend the next few hours spamming and getting used to it, but believe it or not, you might be better off closing books, putting on music, and going to bed. Sleep takes up about a third of our life, but most of us pay little attention to it and take care of it. This neglect is often the result of intense misunderstandings. Sleep is never over, or just a way to relax when all our important work is done. Instead, it is a critical activity, in which your body balances and controls its vital systems, which affect breathing and control everything from circulation to growth and body response.
That's fine, but you might be worried about all those things after this test, right? Not too fast. It turns out that sleep is also important in your brain, sending a portion of the bloodstream into your body as you swell. And what happens to your brain while you sleep is an effective time of reorganization that is essential to the functioning of our memory. At first glance, our memory may not seem impressive at all. Nineteenth-century psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus has shown that we often forget 40% of new things in the first two minutes, something known as a forgettable curve. But these losses can be prevented by the integration of memory, a basic process by which we move from our temporary memory to our long-term solid memory.
This integration occurs with the help of a large part of the brain, known as the hippocampus. Its role in building long-term memory was demonstrated in the 1950s by Brenda Milner in her research with a patient known as HM. After the removal of his hippocampus, HM's ability to make short-term memories was damaged, but he was able to learn repetitive work. As a result of the removal of his hip, HMM's ability to build long-term memories was also damaged. The implication of this case is, among other things, that the hippocampus was more directly involved in consolidating long-term memory, such as facts and ideas that you need to remember about that test, rather than remembering the process, such as finger movements you need to master.
Milner’s discoveries, along with Eric Kandel’s work in the 90s, gave us our current model of how this integration process works. Nerve data are first recorded and temporarily recorded in the temporary memory of neurons. From there, it travels to the hippocampus, which strengthens and develops neurons in that cortical area. As a result of phenomenonof neuroplasticity, new synaptic buds are formed, allowing new connections between neurons, and strengthening the neural network where information will be restored as long-term memory. Now why do we remember some things and not others? Yes, there are a few ways to influence the size and performance of memory storage. For example, memories formed during times of high mood, or even stress, will be better recorded because of the hippocampus link with emotions.
But one of the great things that contributes to combining memory, guessing, sleeping well at night. Sleep consists of four stages, the deepest of which is known as slow sleep and rapid eye movement. EEG monitoring devices between these phases show electrical impulses that travel between the brainstem, hippocampus, thalamus, and cortex, which serve as channels to transmit memory formation. And different categories of sleep have been shown to help integrate different types of memories. During non-REM slow sleep, a reassuring memory is placed in a temporary store on the anterior part of the hippocampus. With ongoing communication between the cortex and the hippocampus, it is regenerated more frequently, driving its own gradual distribution to long-term storage in the cortex.
REM sleep, on the other hand, by its similarity to awakening brain function, is associated with the integration of process memory. So based on the lessons, sleeping three hours after memorizing your formulas and one hour after getting used to your scales would be great. So I hope you realize now that skipping sleep not only harms your long-term health, but actually makes it less likely that you will keep all that knowledge and exercise from last night, all of which confirms the wisdom of the saying, "Sleep with it." Considering all the internal structures and new connections that take place while you are asleep, you can also say that proper sleep will wake you up every morning with a new and improved brain, ready to deal with the challenges ahead.
Also Read: How Stress affects your Body?