Did You Get a Good Nights Sleep?

Here is a fascinating article by Martin Mak on an aspect of memory that is seldom discussed. It is enough to make you lose sleep! LOL!
"It is a well-known fact that a restful night's sleep is vital to a
healthy mind and memory. Disrupted sleep or insomnia can affect
our brain neural recall so much that you can even forget your
password to your computer, even if you've been keying it daily.

A lack of sleep appears to disrupt the functioning of the
hippocampus, an area of the brain that forms new memories.

The latest of the medical journal Nature Neuroscience reported on
Harvard Medical School investigators who recruited 28 volunteers
who were either randomly deprived of sleep for two days and a night
or who were allowed to sleep normally.

They looked at and tried to remember a large set of pictures while
a scanner screened them, mapping their blood flow, and hence
cerebral activity.

The subjects were then allowed two full nights of sleep before a
second test in which they had to spot the original slides in a
batch that included new pictures.

The sleep-deprived group did worse in the first test than those who
had slept. But in the second test, those who had been
sleep-deprived did much better than those who had earlier slept.

The scanner showed that in the first test, hippocampus activity
among the sleep-deprived was far lower.

Previous research had found that sleep after learning is vital for
consolidating memory, but hard evidence has, until now, been
lacking as to the effects of lack of sleep before a memory is
created.

If you're having trouble falling asleep at night, head to the
kitchen and reach for some kiwifruit. A study by Taipei Medical
University has found that eating two kiwifruits an hour before
going to bed can improve your sleep quality by as much as 40
percent.

Professor Jen-Fang Liu of the university's School of Nutrition and
Health Science studied the sleep pattern of 29 subjects with
diagnosed sleeping difficulties over four weeks. She found that
the kiwifruit diet decreased Sleep Onset Latency (SOL) by an
average of 38.7 percent. SOL is the time it takes a person to fall
asleep after going to bed. The participants also reported waking
up less during the night.

And here's a handy tip; If you find it a hassle to peel the
kiwifruit, simply cut it in half and scoop the contents out with a
spoon.

To learn more ways to boost brain functions for a better memory,
click here > http://mightymemoryforyou.blogspot.com
Sweet dreams!