Ask Dr. Nick
On today’s episode, Dr. Nick talks about how proper autonomic nervous system activity is necessary for memory consolidation during sleep. The autonomic nervous system is made up of two branches: the parasympathetic (‘rest and digest’) and sympathetic (‘fight or flight’) nervous systems. These need to be in balance during sleep in order to set up the proper environment for memory consolidation. The article discussed shows that up to 73% of the associative memory performance is attributed to a proper heart rate variability, which is a measure of vagus nerve activation. Hence, it is important to decrease stress and be in a relaxed state for sleeping at all ages to improve memory. Proper sleep should be everyone’s top priority. Check out the video for more in depth information on how vagus nerve activity during sleep improves memory!
Whitehurst LN, Cellini N, McDevitt EA, Duggan KA, Mednick SC. Autonomic activity during sleep predicts memory consolidation in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Jun 28;113(26):7272-7.
