Sleep

Want to remember something? Well, Sleep on it. A recent study finds that the more we value a piece of information the more likely we'll [review:default] it during our sleep. And because we do that, we'll tend to remember it. Participants were shown objects with different corresponding dollar amounts on a computer screen. If participants could remember that [object:subject] later on a test, they were rewarded with the associated dollar amount. Objects were also accompanied by an associated sound, for [instance:install] a cat was accompanied by a "meow". After either a 90-minute nap or wake period subjects' memory for low-value objects was worse than for high-value objects. But in a second experiment [associated:accumulated] sounds were played either when the subjects were awake or asleep, as a way to trigger the memory of the object. Researchers found that low-value objects were better remembered when the associated sound was [played:delayed] during subjects' sleep as opposed to when they were awake.