Sleep Smart, Get Smart

We all know that a good night’s rest is vital for your health; it’s your body’s chance to rejuvenate and reset itself. However, did you know that sleep is also the time when your brain stores memories, strengthens neural connections, and clears away unnecessary information? It’s the time when space is made for learning.Learning is the process in which the brain acquires new or modifies existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, or preferences. During the day, as you process new information from life’s experiences, temporary connections are made between different neurons in the brain forming short-term memories. Over the course of the day, the unnecessary connections from arbitrary information are marked for recycling. At night when you sleep, your brain’s janitor cells, the microglia, remove these labeled synapses that hold unimportant information to make space for the development of stronger connections that code for the important stuff. Long-term memories are formed through more secure and more efficient neural pathways. When you wake up, your head is clearer and ready to start the learning process anew.

Read this article to learn more about how sleep helps the learning process unfold.