Responsive Health's Official Blog

I think we all wish that we could get a little bit more shut eye every once in awhile.  In addition to making it just that much easier to get through the day, a good night’s rest has a multitude of other health benefits.

Studies have shown that getting at least eight hours of sleep a night can be beneficial for weight management. Not only does getting a good night’s rest prevent late night binging,  but a good night’s sleep helps recharge the body’s metabolism. Good sleeping patterns can also work to slow aging, as it allows the body to rest and rebuild essential cells and building blocks that break down with time.

Beyond these long known health benefits, however, a good night’s sleep is now being shown to help preserve important memories.  A study of college students aged 18 to 22 showed that those who studied and then received at least 8 hours of sleep were more likely to remember important information for up to four months.  Not only does sleeping help improve all memories, however, but the study shows it might actually be possible to select the most important memories for your brain to remember.   “It may be that the chemical and physiological aspects of sleep underlying memory consolidation are more effective if a particular memory is ‘tagged’ shortly prior to sleeping,” says Jessica Payne, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

But before you start frantically running through physics formulas or an important presentation before going to bed, the study has yet to discover how to effectively “tag” a memory.  So for now just concentrate on getting at least 8 hours of sleep.  That way, you can remember to check back here for more updates!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Men's Health, Women's Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.