The secret of strong memory and youthful brain – Adequate, sound sleep

In today’s busy life, finding time for oneself seems an impossible task. Human hunger to collect materialistic pleasures has taken away all the happiness, peace and sleep of human beings. In the struggle to meet the needs of the house, rest and adequate deep sleep have become just a dream.

Getting less or no sleep at all is reducing our learning, memory and ability to work day by day. In our biological clock, the brain has fixed a certain programming (plan) for each task, which may differ from one person to another. Like some people have a habit of getting up early in the morning, then their time of getting up gets fixed in the brain which helps them to get up at the same fixed time every day. Similarly, some students can study till late night, while some find it more convenient to study early in the morning.

Similarly, there is a deep connection between sleep and brain and sleep and memory power. Our sleep affects our memory power to a great extent. Researchers’ research and their results indicate that deep sleep of the full duration makes our memory stronger. Doctors often recommend taking 8 to 10 hours of deep sleep, which is also very important from the point of view of health. While the duration of sleep in the newborn is longer, which is related to the rapid physical development of the baby.

Often we do not feel refreshed even after taking 8 to 10 hours of sleep and many times we feel energetic and refreshed again after just a few minutes of nap or a couple of hours of sleep. The reason behind this is our surrendering ourselves to the mind. When we do not want to leave our daily problems even after going to bed, in such a situation, the brain has to do additional work to bring you to sleep, you fall asleep somehow but the brain gets tired, which has the effect of waking you up. It shows up even after and you feel heavy and put out instead of feeling refreshed. Which also affects your daily work capacity.

When we take a nap, our brain goes through different stages of sleep. Rapid eye movement sleep is the second part of sleep stage after non rapid eye movement sleep, which has three stages. During the night we normally go through 3 stages of non rapid eye movement sleep and three stages of rapid eye movement sleep. Go through a phase that lasts 90 to 120 minutes.

Including light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, dreams often occur during this period. Sleep deprivation affects a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is important for forming new memories. The rapid eye movement (RIM) stages of sleep prime the brain for learning activities the next day. It is estimated that if we do not sleep, our ability to learn new things can be reduced by up to 40%.

Scientists at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) are trying to understand the relationship between sleep and memory. Which in future will help the students to learn, maintain the memory power of the old people. According to Dr. Matthew Walker, a sleep scientist at the University of California, sleep before learning helps our brain prepare for memory, and then sleep after learning helps to store and consolidate that new information in the brain, thereby We are less likely to forget it. Recent studies also suggest that insufficient and excessive sleep can affect memory processing and other cognitive processes. A good night’s rest not only promotes good physical health but also enables our brain to function properly, so getting an adequate amount of sleep each night is key to strengthening memories.

There is a deep connection between sleep and memory. Getting enough rest and sleep helps us process new information after waking up, and sleeping after learning allows us to consolidate this information into memories, stored in the brain.

During the non-rapid eye movement stages of sleep, the brain sorts through our various memories from the previous day. Filters essential and non-essential memories and removes unnecessary information. These selected memories become more stable as deep non-rapid eye movement sleep begins, and this process continues during rapid eye movement sleep. Emotional memories are also processed in this phase, which helps you deal with difficult experiences and problems.

That’s why sleep has special importance in this run-of-the-mill life of ours. The secret to keeping your memory and recall power strong and getting daily physical energy lies in getting enough sleep. Just as the deep, prolonged sleep of newborns plays an important role in their physical development, in the same way deep and adequate sleep in an adult’s life provides mental energy, freshness and youthfulness to the brain. (Writer is Sr. Educationist & Columnist, Dehradun, Uttarakhand.)