A new study examined how obstructive sleep apnea in children may interfere with memory consolidation, and it also uncovered a potential method of predicting the level of disruption caused by the associated sleep loss, according to Medical News Today.
One role that sleep seems to play a part in is the consolidation of memories. And although rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been considered important, non-REM (NREM) sleep has gained more interest recently. If we conclude that sleep is necessary for firming up memories, it stands to reason that broken sleep should have a detrimental effect.
Recently, a group of researchers ran a study investigating whether or not children with disturbed sleep demonstrate impaired memory. They also hunted for any related neural activity.
