Scientists have long puzzled over the many hours we spend in light, dreamless slumber. A new study suggests we're busy recharging our brain's learning capacity during this traditionally undervalued phase of sleep, which can take up half the night.
UC Berkeley researchers have found compelling evidence that bursts of brain waves known as "sleep spindles" may be networking between key regions of the brain to clear a path to learning. These electrical impulses help to shift fact-based memories from the brain's hippocampus -- which has limited storage space -- to the prefrontal cortex's "hard drive," thus freeing up the hippocampus to take in fresh data. Spindles are fast pulses of electricity generated during non-REM sleep, and they can occur up to 1,000 times a night.
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