A good sleep works wonders for your memory. If you can't sleep for worrying that you'll forget everything on your to-do list, it's time to relax.
A good night's rest is the one thing that is sure to help you remember those jobs, scientists say.
Their study, the first of its kind, shows that waking up feeling refreshed after a full night's sleep is a great aid to 'prospective memory' - being able to remember to do something in the future.
They also discovered that remembering to call the bank or post a letter has less to do with how well it is embedded in our minds, and more with a 'trigger' the next day. That might be seeing your monthly statement or a stamp.
A good night's sleep is a great aid to 'prospective memory' - being able to remember to do something in the future
And an unbroken night's sleep helps us take advantage of these triggers when we see them, reminding us what we have to do.
Researchers say the findings help our understanding of the role sleep plays in cognition as well as memory.
Professor Mark McDaniel, of Washington University, in St Louis, in the U.S., said: 'We found sleep benefits prospective memory by strengthening the weak associations in the brain, and that hasn't been shown before.'
The study found that sleep specifically helped us take advantage of what he calls 'weak' memory cues, rather than 'strong' ones. 'Let's say that you intend to give a colleague a message tomorrow.
'Seeing the colleague-the next day will be a strong cue for remembering to give the message,' he said.
'But, during the time your brain encoded the intention, you're also vaguely thinking of a meeting the two of you will attend the next afternoon.
'The context of the conference room is weakly associated with your intention to give the message - even though you haven't really thought explicitly about associating the room with the message.
'Before sleeping, you remembered you had a message to deliver to your colleague and you would see him in the conference room tomorrow. Sleep enhances the likelihood that you will tell him in the conference room, but not in some other context - the office, or the elevator, for example.
'One of the more provocative findings we have is that sleep didn't strengthen the link between the explicit cue, which is the person, and the intention. Rather, it strengthened the weak association and the intention.'
The scientists, whose research was published in the journal Psychological Science, asked 24 students to perform different word games on a computer.
Some prepared for the test one evening and took it the next day. Others did the test the same day. Those who slept before taking it performed very strongly.
The researchers believe the prospective memory process happens during 'slow wave' sleep - an early pattern in the sleep cycle involving communication between two areas of the brain that deal with memory.( dailymail.co.uk )
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