If you want to maximize your memory functions; you need to get the right kind of sleep. It’s proven that sleep helps your brain combine new memories with the old ones, and boosts your creativity or problem-solving skills. Here are a few tips we should all follow to keeps our memories sharp.
The healthy recommended amount you should sleep
For the average adult, 7 to 8 hours is the healthy recommended amount you should sleep. Those who get less than 3 to 4 hours a night will have more trouble holding certain memories in place.
Naps are great for your memory if they are earlier in the day and last longer than 90 minutes as long as they do not disrupt your sleeping patterns at night.
When we do not get enough sleep, it can cut our learning skills or what we’ve actually just learned by a whopping 40%.
After we have crammed for an exam or tackled a mentally stressful project, it’s important to get a good night’s sleep within a 24 hour period. Otherwise, the brain has trouble connecting all those new and old puzzle pieces together into one comprehensive memory of information.
When we sleep, our brain needs all the parts to work correctly. We need light sleep, deep, sleep and the wonderful REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep so we can dream. It cycles around every 90 minutes or so for that healthy memory function to work correctly, and then that will give us the ability to retain what we need to learn for tomorrow as well.
For all those students out there, sleep is just as important the night before you study as it is the night after. You won’t benefit from either if you foolishly cut corners.
When we get the right amount of sleep, we make ourselves retain more information, in turn, making us smarter. And isn’t that what we all want anyways?
