Want to Remember It? Sleep On It

Finally, students have an argument for sleeping in class. The Scientific American reports that Harvard Medical School resarchers asked 60 healthy
subjects to memorize 20 pairs of random words, such as blanket and
village. The participants were assigned to one of five groups of 12 and
had unlimited time to learn the pairings. Two of the groups began
learning at 9 A.M and returned for testing at 9 P.M. that evening–with
no naps allowed–and two of the groups began learning at 9 P.M. and
returned for testing at 9 A.M. the following morning after a night’s
sleep. Ninety-four percent of sleepers accurately recalled the pairings compared to 82
percent of their peers. But when the researchers added a twist–forcing
subjects in two of the groups to learn a new set of word pairs 12
minutes prior to testing–the well-rested radically outperformed the
sleepy; 76 percent of sleepers accurately recalled the initial pair
compared to just 32 percent of their peers who had gone without
shut-eye. In an article in Current Biology, researchers argue that sleep "orchestrates the strengthening of
memories and thereby renders them less vulnerable to interference."