To the Cameron Crazies among us, there is nothing
more awe-inspiring than watching the Blue Devils cruise to victory over their opponents. The fade-away jump shots, alley-oops,
steals, and passes seem automatic. How do the players learn to perform such complex skills so quickly and so well under such
high-pressure circumstances? It turns out that when Coach K tells his players to get a good night’s sleep after practice,
he does so for a reason. A recent study by Stickgold, James, and Hobson (2000) has shown that sleeping after learning the
types of skills used in basketball is a crucial part of learning those skills. The study, performed in the Neurophysiology
lab at Harvard Medical School, dealt with sleep’s effects on performance of visual discrimination tasks. A visual discrimination
task is an activity that depends on effortless, virtually automatic execution (Bower, 2000), which is exactly the type of
skill fans see as they watch Dahntay Jones drive to the basket for a lay-up, or JJ Redick catch the ball, get set in shooting
position, and make a three-point shot, all in a matter of a second or two. The results of the study clearly show that the
first night of sleep after learning a skill is a crucial part of skill retention.
In the study by Stickgold and colleagues, the
subjects, who were men and women between the ages of 18 and 25, were trained and tested in a visual discrimination task for
60-90 minutes, and re-tested in that task after a waiting period ranging from a few hours to several days. Some of the subjects
made up the control group and were allowed to sleep normally after learning the task, and some of the subjects were kept from
sleeping for over 24 hours, but then allowed at least 48 hours to catch up on sleep before being tested again. Subjects who
were allowed to sleep normally showed significant improvement from their earlier performance after only one day, with the
average peak performance in these subjects occurring four days after the initial training and testing. It is not surprising
that the sleep-deprived subjects in Stickgold’s study didn’t perform as well as the control group. What is surprising is that they showed no significant improvement at all, even after being given 48 hours to “catch
up” on sleep. Because of the recovery period, the researchers determined that drowsiness was not to blame for the lack
of improvement.
The
sleep deprived subjects weren’t the only group that didn’t improve. Subjects who were tested just three hours
after the initial training and testing didn’t improve either. Because of this, the researchers inferred that some of
the retention of the skill has to do with the sleep that follows the training period. Stickgold claims that although some
learning takes place while the training is being administered, the processes involved in learning a task continue for up to
48 hours. The process of learning a visual discrimination task starts with training and continues during sleep when the brain
processes the learned information (Stickgold et. al, 2000). The researchers also concluded that making up for lost sleep later
doesn’t make up for the lost learning that would have occurred during the initial night after sleep.
This
study can clearly be applied to the Duke men’s basketball team. If the players get a good night’s sleep after
each practice, there is a greater chance that they will retain the skills they learn in practice and improve on them for the
big games. Furthermore, the concept of the importance of the initial night of sleep after learning is by no means limited
to the basketball team. It can be applied to almost every sport at Duke, even intramural ones that many students participate
in. Further research may even extend the application of this study’s conclusions to broader areas of memory, such as
complex thinking processes used in many of our classes.
So
the next time you stare in awe as Dahntay Jones catches a pass from Chris Duhon in midair and slams it through the hoop, or
the next time a player is easily burned by the opposing guard because of sloppy footwork, remember that the first night of
sleep those players got after learning a specific skill may have possibly made, or broken, that play.
Bower, Bruce. (2000). Certain memories may rest on a good sleep [Electronic version].
Science News, 158, 23. Retrieved January 25, 2003, from http://www.sciencenews.org/20001202/fob5.asp
Stickgold,
R., James, L., & Hobson, A. (2000). Visual discrimination learning requires sleep after training [Electronic version].
Nature Neuroscience, 3, 12. Retrieved January 25, 2003, from http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/neuro/journal/v3/n12/full/nn1200_1237.html
