There was a time when many people scoffed at the National Sleep Foundation’s recommendation for the average adult to sleep seven to nine hours.
A new study published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory suggests that sleeping for at least eight hours a day actually has many benefits, including improving one’s memory, according to the website NDTV Food.
“We found that when participants were given the opportunity to have a full night's sleep, their ability to correctly identify the name associated with a face - and their confidence in their answers - significantly improved,” explained Jeanne F Duffy, associate neuroscientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH).
In the study, Duffy and her team asked 14 participants to look at 20 photographs of names and faces of people they never met, according to Tech Times. The researchers reportedly told participants to try to memorize the different information shown to them.
After 12 hours, the researchers reportedly asked the participants to identify the names of people in the photographs. Based on the responses they were provided, Duffy and her team found that the high level of confidence in answering the questions was a significant benefit of sleep.
The participants were asked to complete the exercise twice.
The first round reportedly involved the individuals going to sleep in between looking at the people in the photographs and identifying their names while the second round had them undergo regular walking activities in between the two actions.
Participants were reportedly able to match 12 percent more of the names and faces after sleeping for eight hours.
As the recent study was conducted on healthy people in their 20’s, the research team is now reportedly looking to explore if older people above the age of 65 would experience the same benefits.
“Sleep is important for learning new information," Duffy said.
“As people get older, they are more likely to develop sleep disruptions and sleep disorders, which may in turn cause memory issues."
