On the eve of an exam it is common to hear that it is better to go to sleep than to spend the night awake studying, since sleep serves to consolidate what has been learned. Memory enhancement at night had already been scientifically proven , but new research from Brown University (USA) has revealed that this brain activity occurs during the slow wave sleep phase and not during REM phase.
The research started from a comprehensive analysis of the nocturnal brain activity of nine participants to establish a baseline measure. During the second stage of the experiment, all nine had to learn a specific sequence of finger strokes. Four of them were allowed to sleep, while the other six were kept awake as a control group. Both sectors had to reproduce the sequence hours later, resulting in less skillful and precise sailing participants when executing it.
Electromagnetic analysis concluded that the brain changes originated in the supplementary motor area of the cerebral cortex and occurred during the slow wave phase, a phase of deep sleep that precedes the REM phase in which the brain waves are broad and very slow breathing rate.
“Sleep is not just a waste of time. It is an intensive activity for the brain that helps to consolidate learning, because there is more energy available or because the distractions are less ”, explained Yuka Sasaki, co-author of the study, to the SINC news agency.
