Sleep and learning

Learning is technically defined as a permanent change in person's behavior as a result of experience. It refers to the change in the behavior or potential of the behavior of a subject in a given situation, as a product of its repeated experiences in that situation. This behavioral change cannot be explained based on the innate response trends of the individual, its maturation, or temporal states (such as fatigue, alcoholic poisoning, impulses, etc.). What is widely known as instinctive behavior patterns, are therefore excluded by definition.

From birth and throughout life, you learn much more than are only memories of memory and to acquire skills or skills in certain activities. In addition, to all this we must add attitudes, forms, prejudices, roles and many other social capacities.

Learning is a enduring change in the ability to conduct itself in a given way, as a result of practice or other forms of experience and this requires development of new actions and modification of these. Learning is an acquisition of knowledge that refers to a change referring to "possession". This aspect of the definition excludes temporary behavioral changes. But, at the same time, the changes do not have to last for a long time to classify them as learning, since there is oblivion.

Relationship between sleep, learning and consolidation of significant memories

While we are sleeping, two types of sleep are produced: The paradoxical dream (sp) or sleep of rapid ocular movements (mor) which refers to the sleep period during which outbreaks of rapid brain wave. This dream is characterized by a very fast cortical activity, sporadic muscle activity and respiratory and cardiac irregularities. There is also the Non-paradoxical dream (SNP) or non-mort, which refers to all those stages of sleep during which the subject is asleep but does not present rapid eye movements.

It has been discovered that complex neurophysiological interactions between the stem and brain limbic structures intervene in the relationship between paradoxical dream and memory consolidation. Although the exact neurophysiological and biochemical bond has not yet been clarified, it seems that during the paradoxical dream there is a synthesis of protein intimately related to the consolidation of the individual's memory.

Many studies have been carried out that indicate that After a certain type of complex learning there is an increase in paradoxical sleep and not from non -paradoxical sleep. This has been proven in students, which just after the exam era has a significant increase in the number of rapid ocular movements or MOR regarding holiday periods. Studies have also been done in students from other languages, verifying that those who rendered the best in the course were the ones who showed the most in their percentage of mor.

On the other hand, it has also been observed that children with high capacities show a Percentage of rapid ocular movements higher than other children, While mental deficient shows this type of event in a significantly lower proportion. The density of rapid eye movements in premature children increases with sensory stimulation. Newborns have a very high percentage of these eye movements, probably due to the bombardment of stimuli to which they are subjected and that they must consolidate in their memory. In addition, the number of MOR storms and the promptness with which they appear indicate the level of the child's mental development. These findings are extendable to the neuropsychological field, where it has been determined that aphasic patients increase the percentage of rapid ocular movements in the periods of language recovery.

Motor learning and sleep quality

As for engines learning, Physical exercise based on usual movements patterns, have no significant relationship with the amount of paradoxical sleep In the individual. However, motor learning paradigms that imply a change in coordinates and intrapersonal orientation axes (such as learning to make springboard jumps), can affect the consolidation of memory. The increase in paradoxical sleep decreases as learning progresses and disappears when the subject dominates the task, that is, when the memorization has been finalized. This relationship is observed only in certain types of complex and significant learning for the individual, if not, the dream with rapid eye movements seems to have no greater relationship about the subsequent retention of the memory.

But the relationship between paradoxical dream and mnesic consolidation It refers more to long -term events, since it has not been possible to demonstrate that it affects the short -term memory.

There are some "windows" while we are sleeping, during which the presence of paradoxical dream effectively increases the consolidation of memory and deprivation and this dream clearly promotes oblivion, and there are other periods in which the paradoxical dream does not seem essential in relation to the memory.

Other studies have shown that selective deprivation of paradoxical sleep after learning implies a high degree of physical and behavioral stress in the person. The decrement in learning is presented only if there is deprivation of this dream and not if they are from other stages of the same. Likewise, alcohol (powerful paradoxical sleep inhibitor) has the same effect as sleep deprivation in the phases of rapid eye movements, decreasing memory by 20-30% compared to individuals who have been done without alcohol.

In both animals and humans the visual system and probably also the auditory, sweep the data learned during the day in sleep hours. Overnight, The dream with rapid ocular movements indicates a weakening of less "strong" synapses that would account for oblivion of many events of the day after a night of sleep. On the other hand, a second action is carried out that is to consolidate and access the long -term warehouse the data that were more powerful of the initial scan.

Can we learn while we sleep? Myth or Reality

Regarding learning during sleep, various studies show that stimulation during sleep acts as a reinforcer of the memory trace even though it is not stored further memory to stimulation. On this there are discrepancies among studies conducted by Soviets, which draw more optimistic conclusions, against studies in the West. Although the methodological difference between the works would explain these differences. In the West it was concluded that learning during sleep is not possible, If the subject is really asleep when the study is presented, learning is null or so distorted that it has no practical effects. The repetition of a previously known material during the sleep does not increase the souvenir rates itself, but it is not innocuous since it acts as a stimulator of the mnesic consolidation processes.

All studies seem to indicate that among the possible functions of the paradoxical sleep, one of the most apparent is to actively reprocess and consolidate traces of learning of learning made in the previous days or weeks. There is, therefore, an importance between sleeping well and enough hours, with the optimal performance in studies or in everyday life.