Sleeping on it helps in problem solving - study

[Guest guest]

Sleeping on it helps in problem solving - study

Last Updated: 2004-01-21 13:34:30 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Advice to " sleep on it " could be well founded,

scientists said on Wednesday. After a good night's sleep a problem that

seemed insurmountable the night before can often appear more manageable,

although the evidence until now has been anecdotal.

But researchers at the University of Luebek in Germany have designed an

experiment that shows a good night's sleep can improve insight and

problem-solving.

" If you have some newly acquired memories in your brain, sleep acts on

these memories, restructures them, so that after sleep the insight into

a problem which you could not solve before increases, " said Dr. Jan

Born, a neuroscientist, at the university.

To test the theory, they taught volunteers two simple rules to help them

convert a string of numbers into a new order. There was also a third,

hidden rule, which could help them increase their speed in solving the

problem.

The researchers, who report their findings in the science journal

Nature, divided the volunteers into two groups, half were allowed to

sleep after the training while the remainder were forced to stay awake.

Born and his team noticed that the group that had slept after the

training were twice as likely to figure out the third rule as the other

group.

" Sleep helped, " Born said in a telephone interview. " The important thing

is that you have to have a memory representation in your brain of the

problem you want to solve and then you sleep, so it can act on the

problem. "

But Born admitted that he and his team don't know how restructuring of

memories occurs or what governs it. Pierre Maquet and Perrine Ruby of

the University of Liege in Belgium said the experimental evidence

supports the anecdotal suggestions that sleep can stimulate creative

thinking.

" The authors (of the study) have applied a clever test that allows them

to determine exactly when insight occurs in the time-course of

learning, " they said in a commentary. Although the role of sleep in

human creativity will still be a mystery, the research gives people good

reason to fully respect their periods of sleep, they added.

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org