Consolidation and sleep: Let biology do the work for you 巩固与睡眠:让生理机能为你工作

Consolidation and sleep Let biology do the work for you 巩固与睡眠:让生理机能为你工作

Consolidation and sleep: Let biology do the work for you
巩固与睡眠:让生理机能为你工作

Learning does not finish with the end of studying. For a memory trace to become permanently established in our long-term storage systems, structural biological changes must take place in brain tissue. New connections between neurons must be formed and firmly established.
学习的结束并不意味着最终学会。为了在长期存储系统中形成永久记忆,大脑的组织中必须发生结构性的生物学变化。神经元之间必须形成并建立稳定的新联结。

These changes are not immediate and take time. In scientific terms, the mechanism through which recent memories become permanent memories is called ‘consolidation’. Although some consolidation occurs during wakefulness, the primary time for consolidation is sleep.
这些变化不会立即发生。最新的记忆变成永久记忆的机制,在科学上被称为“巩固”。尽管有些巩固在清醒的状态下发生,但巩固主要发生在睡眠期间。

Have you ever studied for an exam through the night? If so, did you perform as well as in other exams for which you enjoyed a full night of undisturbed sleep? Probably not. Unsurprisingly, researchers have found that sleep deprivation impairs memory consolidation and undermines learning. In fact, sleep deprivation (before or after learning) can worsen performance in a declarative memory test by as much as 20-50%, . Moreover, prolonged sleep deprivation has permanent damaging effects on memory.
你是否曾为了考试熬夜学习?如果这样做过,你在考试中的表现和享受了一整晚不受打扰的睡眠时一样好吗?大概不是。毫不奇怪,研究人员发现,睡眠不足会损害记忆巩固,从而影响学习。事实上,睡眠不足(不论是学习之前还是学习之后)都会使被试在陈述性记忆测试中的表现降低20%~50%。 不仅如此,长期睡眠不足还会对记忆造成永久性伤害。

Why You need to sleep – How sleep can make you more health

On the other hand, you can use sleep as a powerful aid in-between your study sessions. You may have heard of ‘power naps’ – short periods of sleep used to refresh energy. There is now robust evidence to recommend naps. Napping during the day will protect your memory from trace decay (see section ‘Trace decay’) and interference (see section “Interference”) due to sleep-induced consolidation processes. In other words, you will forget less of the subject studied than if you stayed awake for the same amount of time.
另一方面,你可以把睡眠用作几个学习时段之间有力的辅助工具。你或许听说过“强效小睡”的说法——用于恢复精力的短时睡眠。如今有强有力的证据建议人们小睡。得益于睡眠带来的巩固过程,白天小睡可以避免你的记忆出现痕迹减退(详见“痕记减退”一节)和干扰(详见“干扰”一节)。换句话说,经过同样长时间,睡眠比一直保持清醒状态遗忘的内容更少。

If you decide to give napping a try, it is important to be aware of the different stages of sleep. Napping for the maximum of 20 minutes is effective for restoring your energy, however, it is not enough to reach deeper stages of sleep during which consolidation occurs.
如果你决定试试小睡,那么重要的是要了解睡眠的不同阶段。不超过20分钟的小睡对于恢复精力十分有效,但这还不足以进入深度睡眠,而巩固过程是在深度睡眠期间发生的。

Do you know how to sleep well? Check these positions!

In order to boost your memory, you need to sleep for at least 60 minutes. However, napping for 60 minutes has the downside of leaving you in a groggy state for about 30 minutes afterward (because you wake up in the middle of deep sleep). Therefore, it is best to sleep for a full 90 minute cycle. After that, you will both feel refreshed and your memory will benefit from consolidation. Another good option that has been found to be effective is to schedule your study session to the evening right before sleep.
为了增进记忆,你需要至少睡60分钟。然而,小睡60分钟带来的坏处是,接下来的30分钟你都将处于昏昏沉沉的状态(因为你是在深度睡眠的中间醒来的)。因此,最好是睡够一个完整的90分钟周期。结束之后,你将重新恢复活力,而记忆也会得益于巩固过程而变得更加牢固。另一个被发现有效的好办法是在计划日程时把学习环节安排在睡前。

In summary, we recommend the following:
总结起来,我们推荐以下做法:

·Take a 20-minute nap to restore your energy.
·小睡20分钟使你恢复精力

·Take a 90-minute nap after a study session to consolidate your memory.
·在一段学习之后,小睡90分钟来巩固记忆。

·Schedule your study sessions before sleep to reap the full benefits of consolidation.
·规划日程时把学习安排在睡前,从而享受巩固带来的全部好处。

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