Most of us don’t have a good pattern of sleep – either we sleep at extremely late hours which results in sleeping for extremely long hours or we sleep very little due to wasting our time socialising on the internet or watching movies etc. Unfortunately, there are very few of us who sleep little due to being busied by ‘ibaadah (acts of worship) or seeking knowledge.
Sleep is very important for consolidating one’s memory. No matter how much you memorise, without proper sleep and rest, you will not remember anything. Scientists believe that sleep and memory are intricately connected and sleep deprivation can cause even a young person’s brain to act in a way which is connected to the aging process.
The sleep that is connected to your memory is the deep sleep and three steps have been developed in the connection of memory to sleep; consolidation, stabilization, and re-consolidation. For your memories to be stabilized, this research has shown that a period of six hours must pass. It also found that the younger the person, the more sleep they needed for proper optimal mental function. This is why we find young children from when they are born sleep for long hours. Matthew Walker, a professor at Harvard University, says about this;
“Sleep appears to play a key role in human development,” says Walker. “At 12 months of age, infants are in an almost constant state of motor skill learning, coordinating their limbs and digits in a variety of routines. They have an immense amount of new material to consolidate and, consequently, this intensive period of learning may demand a great deal of sleep.”
Several studies have been conducted amongst college students by asking them to memorise simple sequences or word lists and comparing the recall memory of students who slept and those who hadn’t. All studies revealed that subjects who had slept were able to remember what they had memorised more and made fewer mistakes in recalling the material.
Being deprived of sleep also affects your ability to learn (in this case memorise new) material because of the poor mental performance and lack of ability to concentrate. One thing that many sleep deprived people do to improve their memory is drink excessive amounts of caffeine. While this can slightly improve their memory, it is still not as good as people who are get the recommended amount of sleep.