Sleep and Memory is a big area for those researching risk factors of for dementia but what about on a day to day basis- how does sleep affect your memory of what you did today or yesterday?
“You don’t need to sleep to create a memory but sleep plays a critical role in determining what happens to newly formed memories” according to Robert Stickgold, and research from the division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“Sleep help to move things into long term storage and it links memories with previous memories”.
And have your ever wondered why you remember some events or experiences more than onthers? It seems that sleep favours certain types of memories especially those with emotional aspect. And interestingly, those experience that are linked with a negative emotion get preferential space in our minds- we want to remember not to do it again!