Sleep To Be Smart

Sleeping is one of the most important parts to achieving good health. It is the time when the body rebuilds, heals, and rejuvenates. Without enough quality deep sleep, it is hard to feel good. It is also hard to learn and remember things. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine recently discovered that sleep turns on brain gene switches. As soon as a person falls asleep, gene switches are turned on in the brain that allow memories to be formed and brain connections to strengthen. Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at UP, Marco Frank, stated that "the machinery of memory is, the actual making and breaking of connections between neurons." The researchers found that these connections between neurons can only be made when we sleep. So what does this tell us? You must get quality sleep to improve learning and be smart!



Sara J. Aton, Julie Seibt, Michelle Dumoulin, Sushil K. Jha, Nicholas Steinmetz, Tammi Coleman, Nirinjini Naidoo, Marcos G. Frank. Mechanisms of Sleep-Dependent Consolidation of Cortical Plasticity Neuron 2009 February Volume 61, Issue 3, 454-466.
Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.