Turns Out That "Sleeping On It" Really Works

We've all heard the expression that it's better to sleep on it. It turns out that science agrees and when it comes to understanding the "big picture" it is actually beneficial to sleep on it.

In a study funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, showed that "relational memory – the ability to make logical “big picture” inferences from disparate pieces of information – is dependent on taking a break from studies and learning, and even more important, getting a good night’s sleep."

In a press release announcing the findings, researchers explained the process this way, "if a person learns that A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then he or she knows those two facts. But embedded within those is a third fact – A is greater than C – which can be deduced by a process called transitive inference, the type of relational memory that the researchers examined in this study."

Earlier research had shown that sleep actively improves task-oriented "procedural memory" – for example, learning to talk, to coordinate limbs, musicianship, or to play sports. Because relational memory is fundamental to knowledge and learning, Walker and Ellenbogen decided to explore how and when this "inferential" knowledge emerges, hypothesizing that it develops during “off-line” periods and that, like procedural memory, would be enhanced following a period of sleep.

"These findings point to an important benefit [of sleep] that we had not previously considered. Sleep not only strengthens a person’s individual memories, it appears to actually knit them together and helps realize how they are associated with one another. And this may, in fact, turn out to be the primary goal of sleep: You go to bed with pieces of the memory puzzle, and awaken with the jigsaw completed."

In short, when faced with making important decisions, getting a good night's sleep is solid advice. Mom was right again.