Everybody knows that duke basketball ranks among the nation’s elite collegiate basketball programs. Annually ranked among the top ten in college basketball, Duke has grown to have the reputation of a very popular and widely recognized basketball institution. Yet, Duke Basketball would not be at the zenith it is on today if it hadn’t been forged out of several years of hard work and dedication by the players and coaches. It is in daily practices where the team perfects each play, pass, and jump shot. By using continuous repetition, each athlete’s body is trained to respond to certain tasks, such as shooting or running plays. Each time a player runs through a play, his body becomes more familiar with the task at hand, until perfection is achieved.

But, what you may not know is that your brain utilizes this very same work ethic. Recent studies on REM (rapid-eye movement sleep) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement sleep) have shown that there is a relationship between sleep and the way the brain performs. There are several determining factors that govern sleep, and the way it affects off-line memory reprocessing and basic learning.

 

Amount of Sleep

You see, as you sleep, your brain goes through many cycles of the various sleep phases. These phases each last about 90 minutes and include REM - which is generally considered light sleep, NREM - deep sleep, and SWS (slow wave sleep) – which is the portion of sleep that includes dreaming. As your brain goes through these phases, it reprocesses (rethinks) the most recent thoughts it has come in contact with. Just like a basketball player in practice becomes familiar with a play, the repetition of these brain functions results in a familiarization of the brain to the knowledge it has acquired. This familiarization makes it much easier for the neurons to process the information each time the brain comes in contact with that particular function. When the brain is more familiar with a function in which it continually repeats, the function is processed more quickly and easily each time. This means that the more time your brain has to run through sleep cycles, the more familiar it is with the information. This familiarization allows you to recall data much quickly and easily while you are awake, and is translated as memory.

 

Sleeping Habits

Just as Duke Basketball players work hard in practice to obtain perfection, your brain works just as hard while you are sleeping. But as the study by Stickgold et al (2001) also shows, there is a correlation between the amount of time that passes from the moment the brain first encounters new information to the moment it is in the sleep phase and the retention of that information. When the brain is reprocessing memory in sleep, it more readily processes the most recent records. This means that the brain is better able to retain knowledge that the brain encounters closer to sleep time.

 

Quality of Sleep

It is important that while practice is taking place that there are no distractions to the players who are trying to develop their skills. This holds true for the brain and its training as well. If the brain is interrupted while sleeping, sleep cycles are unable to be completed, and information is not readily retained. Also, the more comfortable the body is while sleeping, the less the brain has to react to. This allows more of the brain to go into a deeper sleep phase. In addition, the deeper the brain goes into the sleep cycle, the more time the brain has to store the information, and the more consolidated it becomes. This consolidation, which is achieved in part at the end of each sleep cycle, occurs several times in the night. This makes up our memory and governs how easily our brain is to recall or reprocess ideas or concepts.

When all of this is considered together, the connection between sleep and learning is evident. Moreover, not only does sleep improve memory and your brain’s ability to perform, but sleep is vital to other bodily functions as well. So if you want to give your brain a chance to perform at its peak potential and obtain what you learn here at Duke, then the least you can do is provide it with enough training time. If your brain is fully prepared, when it is game time and your grades are on the line, you won’t have to work into overtime.

 

Work Cited

Stickgold et al. 2001.  SCIENCE Vol 294. 2