Adequate sleep is linked to enhanced memory, finds study

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, U.S., found that a good night’s sleep and reminiscing things-to-do before going to sleep helps enhance memory and task execution when you wake up.

According to study authors, people who think of works to be done and ‘sleep on it’ perform much better in reality than those who try to execute their plans before getting to sleep.

Relation between sleep and memory retention
According to researchers, various studies have proved that sleep tends to improve the ability to remember to do something or the things we ‘intend to do’. This process is known as prospective memory.

Study collaborator and doctoral candidate in psychology, Michael Scullin, was quoted by United Press International (UPI) as saying, “We found that sleep benefits prospective memory by strengthening the weak associations in the brain, and that hasn’t been shown before.”

In the present study, researchers focused on prospective memory and retrospective memory--things that have happened in the past.

Prospective memory is the kind of memory which people put to work in routine activities like giving a message to someone at work or picking something on the way back home.

It is also noted that a majority of sleep literature is dedicated to retrospective memory. In other words, one thinks of the past events and occurrences more thus, dreaming about them eventually.

Other findings of the study
Study results further revealed that people’s ability to carry out intentions is not majorly a function of a firm objective that has been embedded in their memories.

Instead, the trigger that helps them succeed in their intentions is often a place, situation or circumstance--some context encountered the next day’ --that stimulates the recall of a planned event, stated the study authors.

Moreover, writing down the things-to-do before going to sleep is another factor resulting in better performance of the intended tasks.

As stated by Mark McDaniel, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts and Sciences, this study is the first leap into the relationship between prospective memory and sleep.

Researchers further noted that the finding offers noteworthy contributions to understand the part played by sleep in cognition and memory.

The research appears in the online journal Psychological Science.