Good sleep helps the brain remember better.

According to a new experiment conducted by Harvard Medical University researchers, lack of sleep inhibits the brain's ability to learn new things.

This experiment has shown that those who do not have a good sleep before learning new information will miss 10% less than those who get a good rest. Researchers say this is a concern because everyone's night-time sleep is decreasing.

The hippocampus region of the brain
(Wikipedia image)

Researcher Seung-Schik Yoo of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and his colleagues asked 14 to participate in a sleepless night experiment by playing chess and checking emails in laboratory. These people absolutely did not sleep until the afternoon of the next day and then they were shown 150 photos before going to bed.

After two nights of rest, these people were asked to return to the lab just to sign some papers. But the researchers surprised them by giving them a small test that required them to select 150 photos that they had previewed out of 225.

They found exactly 74% of the 150 photos they had seen before. Compared to those who had good sleep before seeing 150 photos at the beginning of the experiment, this rate was 86%.

Brain images were taken with the fMRI scanner at the time the participants looked at the first shots showing that lack of sleep reduced the activity of the hippocampus, an area in the brain involved in the process memories . Yoo said 'this study shows that the brain needs to be rested before going on and storing information to process.'

Experiments in mice also show that lack of sleep may increase the concentration of stress hormones in the brain. Consequently, these hormones will disrupt neural activity in the hippocampus. Yoo said it could be a similar mechanism that reduces memory in people who lack sleep.

Previous studies confirmed that a good night's rest after school can improve learning. But Yoo said that his experiment was the first ever experiment to prove the importance of good sleep before acquiring new information.

But he added that 'We still haven't answered the question of how many hours of sleep is enough?'

The Kiet