South Florida Arts & Counseling
Does sleep influence human memory?
As a first interesting fact, it is said that a person sleeps, on average, around two hundred thousand hours throughout his life.
Much has been discussed about sleep interruption being a form of torture, which was even used as an interrogation mechanism in war, called by many a mode of coercion and stress.
The truth is that sleep has a close relationship with memory and learning. There are several studies carried out in both humans and animals that show that getting enough quality sleep has a positive impact on these two factors. On the one hand, those who do not manage to do it this way do not manage to pay due attention to their tasks, to cite an example. On the other hand, by sleeping well, it is possible to incredibly consolidate memory, which is essential for acquiring new information.
For this reason, numerous investigations on the subject have determined that when a student sleeps immediately after memorizing certain data and information, they tend to have a better memory compared to one who did not get a good or sufficient sleep for hours. In fact, in studies with cases of children with the presence of obstructive sleep apnea, when comparing them with others who do not present it, it has been established that the former suffer from impairments in their visual memory and with short- and long-term memory problems.