A new study physically shows that a good night’s sleep improves a person’s memory and learning. Using an advanced microscope, a research team split between China and the US was able to see the formation of synapses, or the connection among brain cells.
The study showed that the benefits of sleep cannot be reaped in other ways. Even intense training can not make up for lost sleep.
Scientists have know for years that memory and learning had a direct link to the amount of sleep people get a night. However, researchers never had figured out how they actually link up. Until now, that is.
Researchers New York University School of Medicine and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School were able to train mice to to walk on top of a rotating rod. Afterwards, they looked into the living brains of the mice with a microscope to see the differences between mice who got sleep and mice who were sleep deprived.
They noticed that mice that get enough sleep have a significantly larger number of new connections formed between neurons than the mice who were sleep deprived. The study went on to note that they disrupted the stages of sleep. This lead to the realization that deep sleep or slow wave sleep better helps with memory and learning than other stages of sleep.
“Finding out sleep promotes news connections between neurons is new and nobody knew about this before. This is just the latest piece of science to highlight the heavy importance of a good night’s sleep,” said Professor Wen-Bio Gan, from New York University.
In a study done in 2013, it was also found that sleep can wash away waste toxins that are accumulated over the day. On top of that, getting a good night’s sleep can help prevent the body from getting numerous medical problems, like diabetes, cancer, or heart disease.
Although sleep is so important, many experts are worried that people do not get nearly enough sleep. With life’s many distractions, like smartphones, tablets, and constant lights being shone in through windows, people might not be getting they need.