For a majority of people today, recalling things the following day or sometime in the future is quite essential. Here, it doesn’t matter if you’re a teacher or a college student, having long-term memory shapes the way you live. While I wanted to discover more about how we could improve our memory, I came across some exciting research.
More specifically, this was a report from try mattress that showed the behavior of the body during different stages of sleep. The experiment proved that there is a close connection between the amount of sleep that we get, and how it affects our memory retention skills. In this case, here are just some of the essential things I learned from the entire study!
Understanding The Stages Of Sleep
The first thing I learned is the critical role that stages 3 and 4 play when it comes to consolidating memories. But before I talk more about the importance of these two stages of sleep, do you know what happens in levels 1 and 2? Well, the first part is just light sleep, and here you can wake up quickly. In the second stage, rest starts getting deeper as your brain function starts slowing down.
Now let’s go back to the third and fourth stages. These two levels of sleep are also called slow-wave sleep. Here, you’re now in a deep sleep, and it would even take a cold bucket of water just to wake you up. The last stage of sleep is known as the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage, where your eyes move back and forth quickly. This phase also comes with heavy dreaming as the body is now firmly ‘settled’ in the land of slumber.
How Do The Stages Of Sleep Help In Retaining Memories?
So, why is sleep crucial in transferring our short-term memory into long long-term memory? I discovered that your early hours of sleep play a massive role in determining whether your brain can retain new things learned during the day.
What happens in these stages of sleep? Here, your brainwaves slow and work together with other parts of the brain to make stronger and deeper connections. You’ll need to go to bed feeling happy and stress-free. Remember that, by keeping your mind positively relaxed, you’ll have no trouble sleeping and you’re first two hours of sleep will be just fantastic!
Steps You Should Take To Improve Sleep
Now, after understanding the relationship between memory, which sleep techniques should you use? I’ve come up with a few tricks which work significantly for me!
- Power napping – if you want to retain information for the following day but you can’t get enough sleep during the night, make sure you sneak in at least 2hours of sleep. Of course, the best way to do this is by taking short naps in between the day.
- Taking a cold shower before bed – I like taking a cold bath because it helps me fall asleep immediately I ‘sink’ into bed. Hence, it ensures that my two hours of sleep do not go to waste.
- Sleep on the right mattress – the bed that you’re sleeping on is mostly responsible for the amount of sleep that you’ll get. A lousy mattress results in restless nights, making it hard for you to retain any useful information and succeed in what you set out to do the next day. So, look at the different types of beds and pick the best match!
Although we tend to lose more memory as we grow older, scientists are trying to come up with a new sleeping therapy. I’ve learned that it’s meant to increase the time that we spend in slow-wave sleep! In any case, this article will help you appreciate the fine line between sleep and memory!
Guest Post author bio: William Murry studies the impact of sleep on our overall health. On his free time, he loves to share his knowledge with his readers.