Fragmented sleep impairs memories

Jul 26, 2011 |

Washington

Tags:

health

Uninterrupted sleep could be the key to good memory, according to a new study.

“Regardless of the total amount of sleep, a minimal unit of uninterrupted sleep is crucial for memory consolidation,” the authors write in the study.

Experts have long hypothesized that sleep is important for memory, but this has been a difficult area to study, in part because of the sleep-deprivation techniques used in research.

Experiments in California showed that mice made to have fragmented sleep could no longer recognise objects they encountered earlier.

While the finding does not reach any conclusions about the amount of sleep needed to avoid memory impairment in humans, it does suggest that memory difficulties in people with apnea and other sleep disorders are likely connected to the compromised continuity of sleep caused by such conditions.

The study was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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