Tag : Sleep

CAMBRIDGE : Most of us struggle to think well after a poor night’s sleep – feeling foggy and failing to perform at our usual standard at school, university or work. You may notice that you’re not concentrating as well, or that your memory doesn’t seem up to scratch. Decades of bad sleep, however, may potentially lead to cognitive decline. Bad sleep also affects people’s mood and behaviour, whether they are young infants or older adults. So how much sleep does our brain need to operate properly in the long term? Our new research study, published in Nature Aging, provides an answer. Sleep is an important component of maintaining normal brain functioning. The brain reorganises and recharges itself during sleep. As well as removing toxic waste byproducts and boosting our immune system, sleep is also key for “memory consolidation”, during which new memory segments based on our experiences are transferred into long-term memory. An optimal quantity and quality of sleep enables us to have more energy and better wellbeing. It also allows us to develop our creativity and thinking. When looking at babies three to 12 months of age, researchers have noted that better sleep is associated with better behavioural outcomes in the first year of life, such as being able to adapt to new situations or regulating emotions efficiently. These are important early building blocks for cognition, including “cognitive flexibility” (our ability to shift perspective easily), and are linked to wellbeing in later life. Sleep regularity seems to be linked to the brain’s “default mode network” (DMN), which involves regions that are active when we are awake but not engaged in a specific task, such as resting while our mind wanders. This network includes areas that a ...