Have you ever been caught in a late-night study jam? New research reveals that 20% of students pull an all-nighter once a month, and 35% stay up past 3:00 am studying once or more weekly (Cappello). It’s no secret that a lack of good sleep can lead to a decrease in performance and focus. Is it possible that sleeping could improve your grades?
There are three main aspects of learning and memory: acquisition, consolidation, and recall. Acquisition is the process of getting entirely new information into the brain, and recall is the ability to access the stored information. The brain performs these functions while you are awake. However unlike acquisition and recall, the process of consolidation also occurs during sleep. Consolidation is described as the process of newly encoded pieces of information (short-term memories) stabilizing into long-term memories. Memories that were initially stored in various parts of the brain are bound together in the hippocampus, a structure within the temporal lobe.
The 1953 discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep brought forth a significant amount of research and shocking findings as to what the brain is capable of during a night’s rest. Through the technology of electroencephalograms (EEGs), neurobiologists found that the brain waves occurring during the REM phase of the sleep cycle were remarkably comparable to those of the waking brain. An EEG revealed that “sawtooth waves” of theta frequency often occurred during REM sleep before a burst of rapid eye movements; this is the same frequency at which the brain binds memory traces in the hippocampus during consolidation (Walter). Therefore, REM sleep provides the time for consolidation during the sleep cycle.
So, how is this sleeping process of consolidation benefiting us, and how can it explain “studying in our sleep?” While the hippocampus binds together short-term memories into long-term memories, synapses, points of contact between neurons in the brain, strengthen (Division of Sleep Medicine). This can also be referred to as long-term potentiation (LTP). Simultaneously on a broader level, this is the process involved with studying. When one repeats information, for example as a form of memorization or note taking, the LTP neural process is engaged. Memories are then solidified, and the strengthened synaptic connections lead to quicker retrieval and “well-studied” information. So, as this process occurs during sleep, the brain essentially mimics the act of studying by repeating the LTP process to strengthen synapses and solidify new information in the form of memories.
In conclusion, new research showing that the consolidation/LTP process occurs during the REM phase of the sleep cycle proves that a “studying-like” process can occur during a night’s sleep. This emphasizes the benefits of sufficient sleep, especially for students. Next time you are told “just sleep on it”, consider the robust and scientific findings that show your brain can truly study in your sleep.