Walker, Chapter 6 (106-132)

• sleep helps with memory
• sleep before learning refreshes our ability to initially make new memories
  • hippocampus stores fact-based knowledge and has a limited storage capacity
  • sleep restores the brain’s capacity for learning by making room for new memories
  • stage 2 nrem sleep
  • sleep spindles: short, powerful bursts of electrical activity
    • the more obtained during the nap, the greater the restoration of their learning
  • shifts fact-based memories from hippocampus to the long-term storage in the cortex
  • people 60-80 yrs old generate less sleep spindles, which reduces their learning capacity
  • concentration of nrem sleep spindles is greatest in the late morning hours, sandwiched between long periods of rem sleep
• sleep the night after learning
  • consolidation: protecting newly acquired info from forgetting, aided by sleep
  • early-night sleep (deep nrem) provides superior memory retention savings
  • can also help regain access to memories
• boosting the memory benefits of sleep
  • sleep stimulation: inserting small amounts of electrical voltage. useful during nrem sleep
  • targeted memory reactivation using sound cues
  • auditory stimulation in stride with individual slow waves
  • slow rocking increases depth of deep sleep
• sleep to forget
  • sleep helps retain everything you need and nothing you don’t
  • actively avoids strengthening memories made to be forgotten
  • uses nrem sleep and sleep spindles
  • activity circles between hippocampus (memory storage site) and frontal lobe (intentionality)
• sleep for other types of memory
  • brain will continue to improve skill memories in the absence of any further practice
  • skill actions become institutional habits
  • sleep helped the brain automate movement routines
  • stage 2 nrem in last 2 hrs of an 8 hr sleep
    • increase in spindles above motor cortex
• sleep for creativity

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