Sleep disorders & memory

Trouble sleeping? Discovering what is keeping you from getting 7-8 hours of sleep should be a priority. Long-term disturbances in sleep can lead to problems with age-related health decline. Bad sleep - linked to increased age-related discomfort and pain - also causes beta-amyloid to build up, which harms brain function and is associated with Alzheimer's disease. It can also hurt your immune system, increase your chance of illness, and prolong recovery time.

Memory and the importance of sleep might be the number one reason you want to work on getting a good night's sleep.

Remembering takes: Acquisition/Encoding - learning or experiencing something new (at this point memories are highly vulnerable to being forgotten); Consolidation (during sleep) - the memory becomes stable in the?brain. (New memories get integrated into already existing knowledge networks in the brain - so you can recall them later); and Recall/Retrieval - having the ability to access the memory in the future.

Both acquisition and recall are functions that take place when you are awake. However, researchers believe sleep is required for consolidation of a memory, no matter the memory type. Without adequate sleep, your brain has a harder time absorbing and recalling new information.

Sleep also helps remove toxic proteins, which if allowed to accumulate in the brain can clog and kill healthy neurons as wells as the memories they store, according to research by NIH. These are the "amyloid" proteins that build up in the brains of those with Alzheimer' disease.

Rem sleep is important in that it is critical to procedural learning. And slow wave sleep is the period of deep sleep when the brain begins to sort through, recognize, and consolidate declarative or factual information that you acquired during the day. Before the memory is filed, it is evaluated for its relevance to what else you might know. If what you heard, read or experienced is not relevant to you now, you probably will not remember it.

Remember sleep aids and prescriptions sedate and truly do not lead to healthy sleep. There are some natural herbal supplements that can help and we will discuss those in a free Zoom class, "The Elusive Thing Called Sleep," at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 on how you can become a detective to your sleep issues and impart ideas for a good night's sleep. To receive a link to the recording of this workshop email me at Lindafj620@outlook.com.

Below are listed articles from respected sources and one sleep program promoted at Stanford.

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/sleeps-crucial-role-in-preserving-memory/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/want-to-improve-your-memory-get-a-good-nights-sleep-2021040222255

https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-deprivation-effects-on-memory

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/memory-and-sleep



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