Which in turn can protect us from the impact of diseases such as Alzheimer's. Your pituitary gland in the brain starts to secrete more growth hormone, vital for cell growth and repair, for instance.ĭeep sleep also boosts production of cytokines, a type of protein that's key for helping fight infections, which is partly why a lack of deep sleep makes you more vulnerable to colds and also reduces the efficacy of vaccines against infections such as the flu.Īnd deep sleep is when a network of channels in your brain, known as the glymphatic system, opens up, allowing fluid to pour through it, washing away the toxic waste that's built up during the day. In deep sleep you're at your most relaxed, and difficult to rouse, but below the surface there is plenty going on. ![]() It's also known as slow-wave sleep because it's when millions of neurons in your brain start firing together, producing big waves that slowly travel through your brain. The bad news is that to produce this effect, the researchers had to use very short words, delivered at just the right moment in the volunteers' sleep cycles, so unfortunately I am not sure this is going to help me.Ī new study adds to mounting evidence that deep sleep plays a vital role in memory (file image of a woman awakening)īut this study does confirm just how much is going on in our brains while we are sleeping.Īnd it adds to mounting evidence that deep sleep plays a vital role in memory and may even protect us against Alzheimer's.ĭeep sleep is one of the four main stages of our sleep cycle. They did significantly better than a control group, who weren't played the words - proving astonishingly that, despite being deeply asleep, they were still aware enough to learn something new. Then, 36 hours later, they were asked to guess if a particular word meant an animal, a tool or a place. Researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland played volunteers a range of words in a language they didn't understand, along with a translation, while they were in deep sleep. ![]() So I was delighted when I came across a recent study which suggested you can learn new words in your sleep. I'm embarrassed by my very basic French, but not embarrassed enough to put in the hard work to improve it. ![]() One of my regrets in life is not being able to speak another language with any real fluency.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |