The Importance Of Memory Consolidation And Sleep

The topic I am writing about is memory consolidation and sleep and how sleep-dependent memory consolidation is effected as we age. First off, memory consolidation is the phenomenon where memory is consolidated while we sleep, which leads to an improved performance following a retention interval of sleep (Ashworth, Hill, Karmiloff‐Smith, & Dimitriou 2014). I wanted to write about this topic because I always wondered why studying right before bed helped me remember things better. The questioned I aim to answer is “does age of the person effect memory consolidation during sleep?” First of all, Ashworth, et al (2014) examined how sleep enhances memory consolidation in children. The researchers tested thirty-three children ages 6 – 12 sleep patterns

2014). The second study, Cherdieu, et al. (2014) examined whether age worsens sleep-dependent memory consolidation in people. Surprisingly, the researchers found that sleep did not enhance memory in older adults like it does for younger adults. It was also found that younger adults benefited from sleep, whereas forgetting in the older adults were comparable between the sleep and wakefulness group. Lastly, the third study by Schönauer, et al (2015) examined whether sleep after learning, compared to sleep deprivation or day-wake periods, shows a lasting beneficial effect on memory performance. The researchers found that sleep deprivation before recall did not have a lasting effect on performance and that performance was significantly enhanced immediately after intervals of no more than 24 hours. Schönauer, et al (2015) also suggested that the hippocampus serves as a buffer during retention interval, and consolidation occurs during delayed sleep. Also since the mirror-tracing task is non-hippocampal dependent suggest that there are more than one sleep-related memory consolidation process. All three of the articles relate to each other because they examine the role of sleep on memory