Sleep's Link to Learning and Memory Traced to Brain Chemistry

"Almost a century after the discovery that sleep helps us remember things, scientists are beginning to understand why."

"During sleep, the brain produces chemicals that are important to memory and relives events we want to remember, scientists reported this week at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington D.C."

"'One of the most profound effects of a night of sleep is the improvement in our ability to remember things,' says Ravi Allada, a sleep researcher at Northwestern University. Yet this connection hasn't been well-understood, he says."

"That's changing, thanks to recent research from scientists includingJennifer Choi Tudor from the University of Pennsylvania. At the meeting, Tudor presented a study involving a brain chemical (known as 4EBP2) that is produced during sleep and is thought to play a role in remembering new information."