When I have to learn something I’m more confident about
remembering it if I can get a good sleep
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Latest sleep research
Researcher Bob Stickgold of Harvard Medical School has put some flesh on the bones of the old adage ‘sleep on it’ as a way of thinking things through and ‘processing’ what we’ve learnt.
His research suggests that undisturbed sleep allows the brain to organise and order our thoughts. It seems that sleep strengthens memory and helps us to extract themes and formulate rules based on our experience. After a good sleep his experimental subjects were better able to recall lists of related words and to understand the themes that connected the words.
It was already known that lack of sleep caused impairment to thinking but this is the first research that shows the brain can actively sort out problems and boost understanding while we sleep.
Bob Stickgold told New Scientist magazine: ‘In sleep we’re not just stabilising memories but extracting the meaning. It is like knowing the difference between cats and dogs even if it is hard to explain.’
So to boost your confidence for that meeting, presentation or interview -
http://sleep.med.harvard.edu/people/faculty/220/Robert+Stickgold+PhD
http://www.researchmatters.harvard.edu/people.php?people_id=6