Learning and Resting: The Byproducts of Sleep

In an article by Christopher Wanjek published by The Huffington Post, he brings to light how sleep is directly correlated with the retention rate of the information we learn. The work of Dr. Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center of Sleep and Consciousness, as well as her colleague, Dr. Guilio Tononi, who is also of the University of Wisconsin Madison, was used to report the relationship between the two variables. Introducing the idea of “synaptic homeostasis”, which states that, during sleep, synaptic renormalization occurs as the brain assess all ours synapses better while we are sleeping. Synaptic renormalization cannot occur while we are awake as there is always a constant stimulus engaging our brains to encode data. Upon understanding how this process works, Cirelli and Tononi called this the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, or SHY.

The neuroscience behind how synaptic homeostasis occurs is linked to the size of the synapses. Using strong visual evidence from SHY, Circelli et al describe how growth of synapses is related to greater stability and retention of what is learned while the individual was awake. Because the synapses are so enlarged prior going to sleep, sleeping is required in order to alleviate that stress from the brain in order to allow for a encoding of the data to be successful. Retention of memory while one is awake is seemingly a misconception people believe as they believe they cannot forget it if it is still fresh in their minds. But this reading suggests otherwise as a sleep helps neurons fire at a much more efficient rate as the synapses return to a state of normalcy.

In his presentation to the Loyola Neuroscience Seminar, Dr. Cavanaugh delved into his research regarding the homeostatic processes in Drosophila and how this correlates with humans. Explaining that one cannot accumulate a “sleep debt” as any individual would crash if racking up a large amount of no sleep, he confirms how sleep is not only necessary for one to attain rest and replenish energy, but also hits at the byproduct of retention of what has happened since the last sleep cycle. The payoff of getting sleep is described as a manner that is primitive in human nature as well as an effort to further enhance the human mind. Dr. Cavanaugh also explains the how physiological factors are seen to be inhibited to perform with an accumulation of sleep debt. Whether it be a lack of energy or the will to muster up more time to study, when the body needs sleep, it will shut down to get it, no matter what the circumstance. 

Works Cited

Cavanaugh, Daniel J., Abigail S. Vigderman, Terry Dean, David S. Garbe, and Amita Sehgal."The Drosophila Circadian Clock Gates Sleep through Time-of-Day Dependent Modulation of Sleep-Promoting Neurons." Sleep. Oxford University Press, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 01 Mar. 2017..net/mla/cite-a-other

Wanjek, Christopher. "Your Brain Actually Shrinks While You Sleep To Help You Learn." The Huffington Post. N.p., 08 Feb. 2017. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.

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