Sleeping is one of the mandatory daily actions that we most gladly comply with. More and more studies show the physical and mental health benefits of getting a good night’s sleep and getting adequate hours of rest.
A new study carried out by members of the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, United States, has shown in animals that sleep suppresses the activity of certain nerve cells that promote forgetfulness and fix memories.
The research, published in the journal Cell , blends the neural mechanisms that help forget with the psychology of forgetting into one integrated picture. In this way, the results suggest that sleep facilitates the retention of memories by improving memory stability.
To understand it, at this point dopamine activity becomes vitally important. As is already known, the task of this neurotransmitter focuses on regulating some types of plasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change the formation of learning and memory, and also forgetting. Well, research shows that increased sleep decreases dopamine signaling, while at the same time improves memory retention.
“Our results add compelling evidence to support the idea that sleep reduces the forgetfulness signal in the brain, thus keeping memories intact,” says Ron Davis, chair of TSRI’s Department of Neurosciences. “As sleep progresses to deeper levels, dopamine neurons become less reactive to stimuli and this leads to more stable memories ,” he specified.
For his part, Jacob A. Berry, the first author of the study, has added that the fact that the dream helps us to remember is already known , but the novelty of the study is to have been able to demonstrate that “one of the ways in which sleep protects a new memory is by calming the activity of dopamine neurons that cause forgetfulness ”.
