Sleep May Help Clear Brain For New Learning

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2009) — A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in the journal Science. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.

The critical question: How many synapses, or junctures where nerve cells communicate with each other, are modified by sleep? Neurologists believe creation of new synapses is one key way the brain encodes memories and learning, but this cannot continue unabated and may be where sleep comes in.

"There are a number of reasons why the brain can't indefinitely add synapses, including the finite spatial constraints of the skull," says senior author Paul Shaw, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "We were able to track the creation of new synapses in fruit flies during learning experiences, and to show that sleep pushed that number back down."

Scientists don't yet know how the synapses are eliminated. According to theory, only the less important connections are trimmed back, while connections encoding important memories are maintained.

more:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143503.htm

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. It's like RAM basically.

Since you can't do a dump of your brain and start over, you gotta shut down and reboot the thing. Makes perfect sense. Also explains a lot of why insomnia sucks. :(

[lizerdbits]

2. I don't read as much when my sleep problems are worse

because I can't retain the information. My whole short term memory sucks when it gets bad.

[SheilaT]

3. And it's not like this is

actually breaking news. This is just a new study.

I've known since high school, more than forty years ago, that sleep was necessary to process information correctly.

[wuvuj]

4. I've increased my...

...sleep time by using 3 G glycine before bed...from typical 5-6 hours to 7-8.