Sleep does not affect acquisition or recall while one is awake. Therefore, sleep has the greatest effect on memory consolidation. During sleep, the neural connections in the brain are strengthened. This enhances the brain’s abilities to stabilize and retain memories. There have been several studies which show that sleep improves the retention of memory, as memories are enhanced through active consolidation. System consolidation takes place during slow-wave sleep (SWS). This process implicates that memories are reactivated during sleep, but that the process doesn’t enhance every memory. It also implicates that qualitative changes are made to the memories when they are transferred to long-term store during sleep. When you are sleeping, the hippocampus replays the events of the day for the neocortex. The neocortex then reviews and processes memories, which moves them into long-term memory. When you do not get enough sleep it makes it more difficult to learn as these neural connections are not as strong, resulting in a lower retention rate of memories. Sleep deprivation makes it harder to focus, resulting in inefficient learning. Furthermore, some studies have shown that sleep deprivation can lead to false memories as the memories are not properly transferred to long-term memory. Therefore, it is important to get the proper amount of sleep so that memory can function at the highest level. One of the primary functions of sleep is thought to be the improvement of the consolidation of information, as several studies have demonstrated that memory depends on getting sufficient sleep between training and test. Additionally, data obtained from neuroimaging studies have shown activation patterns in the sleeping brain that mirror those recorded during the learning of tasks from the previous day, suggesting that new memories may be solidified through such rehearsal.

Does sleep hurt a persons memory?