Display Settings:   Send to:  Choose Destination Neuroscientist.
2006 Oct;12(5):410-24.  Sleep to remember.  Author information
• Department of Neuroendocrinology, University of Lübeck,
Ratzeburger Allee 160, Haus 23a, 23538 Lübeck, Germany.
born@kfg.mu-luebeck.de   Recently, compelling evidence has
accumulated that links sleep to learning and memory. Sleep has
been identified as a state that optimizes the consolidation of
newly acquired information in memory. Consolidation is an active
process that is presumed to rely on the covert reactivation and
reorganization of newly encoded representations. Hippocampus-
dependent memories benefit primarily from slow-wave sleep (SWS),
whereas memories not depending on the hippocampus show greater
gains over periods containing high amounts of rapid eye movement
sleep. One way sleep does this is by establishing different
patterns of neurotransmitters and neurohormone secretion between
sleep stages. Another central role for consolidating memories is
played by the slow os