Sleep does more than banish dark under-eye circles. It also helps you learn, according to an increasing amount of research in animals and humans. Advances in neuroscience led scientists in recent years to produce a large body of converging evidence that shows that sleep helps secure memories and aids at least some types of learning.
Sleep and Learninghttp://
Just like human teenagers, fruit flies that spend a day buzzing around the "fly mall" with their companions need more sleep. That's because the environment makes their brain circuits grow dense new synapses and they need sleep to dial back the energy needs of their stimulated brains, according to a new study by UW-Madison sleep researchers.
Researchers saw this increase in the number of synapses -- the junctions between nerve cells where electrical or chemical signals pass to the next cell -- in three neuronal circuits they studied. The richer "wake experience" resulted in both larger synaptic growth and greater sleep need.
"Sleep prunes back the new synapses; you have to create space for synapses to grow again or you can't learn again the next day," says Cirelli, associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine and Public Health. "Even more importantly, the pruning saves energy, and for the brain, energy is everything. Learning without sleep is unsustainable from an energy point of view."
"This suggests that if the synapses are already down regulated, there is less need for sleep," Cirelli says. "It is more evidence for the theory that sleep is driven by the need to reduce the brain's energy needs."
Even in Flies, Enriched Learning Drives Need for Sleep, Study Finds
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