Sleep, dreams, memory their role and interaction according to scientists

After we wake up from a deep restful sleep always something remains but only for a while. Who has not wondered about the relationship between them? A relationship of the absurd that unconsciously slides into the daily reality and crosses the border between realism and surrealism. Freud has tried to approach the matter for the first time some decades ago contributing a serious attempt to find answers. But what is the point of Freud and his interesting work if we cannot answer the primary question? Let me try to unravel the answers from a more scientific perspective.

Starting with the basics

Night sleep of 7-8 hours consists of 4 to 6 consecutive cycles of repeated patterns of electrophysiological activity of nerve cells. These patterns echo a strictly programmed set of brain maintenance and upgrade processes, absolutely vital for the survival of the organism. This procedure takes place as a rite every night. The most amazing information one can learn today is that no one has survived 11 consecutive days of insomnia. Each of these cycles, lasting 90 to 120 minutes, includes its own architecture, with distinct activity patterns, one of them being the Rapid Eye Movement or simply REM. During the evolution of this stage, we see the most vivid dreams and they are the ones that we remember best when we wake up. REM stage sleep is known to contribute significantly to the consolidation of a newly imprinted memory. But how does it achieve this? Until recently, the basic understanding of the mechanism was missing.

A scientific point of view

Where are memories stored and how is their fate judged? The prestigious scientific review of Nature Neuroscience published research that attributes the importance of REM sleep to the selective enhancement and elimination of newly formed dendritic acanthus-specialized structures of nerve cells. Newly formed due to the newly experienced experience that all together have undertaken to represent in the form of remembrance. Dendritic spikelets are small outgrowths upon the ramifications of the nerve cell, like leaves on the branches of a tree. Only instead of performing photosynthesis, they assume the role of electrochemical communication between neurons to relay signals or information. When these spines are strengthened through a series of complex bio-electrochemical processes, the memories they represent are strengthened accordingly. However, they are not particularly permanent structures. On the contrary, they are created and eliminated at a relatively rapid rate – on the scale of minutes – through a process called “pruning.” The study authors claim that such pruning is most effective during REM sleep, hence its major role is to consolidate memories.

What is the role of sleep in consolidating memory?

Again science holds all the answers. An experiment comes to shed light on this question that troubles the minds of those who study the sleep process. The process of consolidating memories was studied in mice, who had been trained to complete a virtual path on an electric treadmill. Then the researchers either allowed the mice to take a nap or deprived them of this possibility. The mice left to sleep showed significantly higher elimination of dendritic acanthus compared to those deprived of the refreshing Siesta. This difference in “pruning” was observed only in the newly formed dendritic acanthus, while those that existed before, from impressions of older memories, were pruned at the same rate in both conditions.

Memory consolidation is a highly selective process

In other words, during REM sleep, the brain chooses which modifications in neural circuit connectivity to maintain, which to strengthen and which to eliminate, indicating the communication and processing pattern of information based on an estimate of its future value-always based on the survival of the organism.

The significant role of sleep

The researchers then examined the role of calcium and proteins explained that sudden changes in their concentration are important for selective enhancement or elimination of dendritic acanthus, during REM sleep. Sleep deficiency, especially during development, has negative effects on normal brain function, and this study expands the existing framework of understanding the mechanisms involved in the game of memory. Our low performance at work every day we have a poor sleep during night proves the importance of sleep and rest.

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