A new study provides exciting evidence that sleep can restore memory loss. It suggests that people with memory loss accompanied by aging or certain neurological disorders may benefit from increased sleep.

There are long-­term or short-­term memories, depending on the amount of time they are stored. In order to store memory, brains cells need to connect properly, a process called plasticity. During sleep, plasticity happens and memory sticks. When plasticity is impaired by aging or disease, memory loss occurs. It has long been known that sleep improves memory, but it is not well understood whether sleep can restore memory loss.

In a study published in Current Biology on May 18, 2015, Dr Paul J. Shaw and his colleagues showed that sleep restored memory deficit in fruit flies. For over 100 years, fruit flies have been used to study human diseases, leading to many groundbreaking discoveries translatable to human.

Dr Paul J. Shaw and his colleagues took advantage of three strains of “amnesia” fruit flies: two born with memory deficit and one acquired the deficit from Alzheimer’s disease. They put the fruit flies to sleep in three different ways, such as feeding them with a sleep­promoting compound. Surprisingly, all “amnesia” fruit flies that were put to sleep performed better in long-term and short­term memory tests than those that were not.

This study demonstrated the power of sleep in restoring memory loss. Therefore, it seems increased sleep will benefit not only people who want to remember better, but also patients who want to remember well.

For further information

Read the Current Biology original research article which this summary is based on Sleep Restores Behavioral Plasticity to Drosophila Mutants (May 2015).

Visit the profile of the research ambassador, Wen Lin, who wrote this summary.

STM Digest is a collection of lay summaries published next to original research articles on ScienceDirect, provided free of charge, and accessible to everyone.