According to a 2007 press release, memorizing a series of facts is one thing, understanding the big picture is quite another. A new study demonstrates 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.

According to lead author Jeffrey Ellenbogen, MD, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and sleep neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), “People often assume that we know all of what we know because we learned it directly. In fact, that’s only partly true. We actually learn individual bits of information and then apply them in novel, flexible ways.”

Research done with 56 healthy college students to test knowledge following various time periods and periods of sleep led Ellenbogen to the understanding that “sleep is actively engaged in the cognitive processing of our memories. Knowledge appears to expand both over time and with sleep.”

Matthew Walker, PhD, Director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), concludes, “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 help 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.”

Now, as an insomniac, this does concern me. However, at the very least, this information lends support to the notion that “sleeping on it” is beneficial in decision making and that work-life balance is a positive goal to work toward. More importantly, though, recent research confirms that our brains produce new pieces of knowledge from existing information supplies. We should not underestimate our ability to generate solutions to life’s challenges from the ingredients we currently have on hand.

To quote Mark Jung-Beeman, cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University, “At a certain point, you just have to admit that your brain knows much more than you do.” [in "The Eureka Hunt: Why do Good Ideas Come to Us When They Do?" by Jonah Lehrer. The New Yorker July 28, 2008 p. 40-45.]