Scented Sleep Boosts Memory in the Morning

Brain processes tasks while you snore

(NEWSER) - If studying hard makes you sleepy, you may as well indulge. New research from Harvard Medical School suggests that dreaming about a new piece of information helps you remember it. The findings could help improve memory and learning. Students, for instance, may be better off studying before bedtime or taking a post-study snooze. More»

Sleeping for 90 minutes at midday boosts the brain's ability to learn

(NEWSER) - Taking a nap after lunch helps the brain "reset" and prepare to assimilate new information, researchers say. "It's as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact e-mails, you're not going to receive any more mail," says the author of a new study. "It's just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder." More»

From memories to sleep to consciousness itself, scientists still can't agree

(NEWSER) - Debated for centuries, the human mind still holds a mystery or two in modern times. Here are LiveScience's top 10:

1. Consciousness. Still the biggest human puzzle since Socrates.
2. Cryonics. Can gray matter be revived from a 320-degree deep freeze?
3. Aging. An unappreciated benefit, or simply cell decay with no purpose?
4. Nature/nurture. DNA, peer pressure, upbringing—scientists disagree on why we do the things we do.
5. Laughter. Three brain zones like it, but scientists wonder why people giggle at different things.

New study suggests disease-related memory loss may be reversible

(NEWSER) - Alzheimer's patients may be able to recover some memory by using a combo of drugs and mental stimulation, a new study in the journal Nature concludes. Mice with an Alzheimer's-like condition were more likely to remember an electric shock if they had taken a drug stimulating brain-cell growth or lived in playground-like cages. More»

You might lock in those nasty memories: Study

(NEWSER) - Snoozing after experiencing a traumatic event might forge the negative memories and emotions in the brain, a new study suggests. UMass researchers exposed 100 adults to unsettling images and then allowed half to sleep and kept the other half awake. Twelve hours later, the subjects who stayed up displayed a weaker emotional response and weaker memory of the images than the ones who slept, reports ABC News . More»