Sleep Well

The Power of Sleep in Identifying a Face

We’ve all experienced it. You see a face and think, “Where do I now that person from? He looks so familiar!” Sometimes, a few more minutes of pondering or resorting to some awkward inquiry can result in an answer. Other times, you’re not so lucky and you never figure it out. Can your sleep be at all related to this scenario?

A new study just released suggests that yes, our ability to remember faces is linked to how long we are awake.

Specifically, when you are awake for lengthy periods of time – 12 hours or more – your capacity to retain the new information of a fresh face is impaired. The study didn’t find that sleep helps long-term consolidation of that memory, but I would venture to guess that future studies may confirm that sleep indeed helps us keep our new found friends and neighbors at our mental fingertips. It’s well-documented that sleep has a profound role in helping us to:

• remember things
• learn new information
• process data efficiently
• consolidate memories (In fact, it’s believed that dreams may play a special role in that consolidation, though we don’t know exactly how that all works yet.)

I love a good study, and this one is especially unique because it examines an aspect of life so central to human behavior: being able to recognize others. This skill has been the basis for human interactions for millennia, key to not just social interactions but also survival. (Remembering where you put your keys or what time you’re supposed to pick up the kids may also be on your survival radar, but those circumstances call for another study. And I bet sleep also would be a factor.)

So the next time you can’t conjure a name quickly to match that oh-if-I-can-just-put-my-finger-on-it face, you may want to look no further than your last sleeping session. How long ago was it?

Keep that memory sharp. Keep up the good nights.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD, FAASM
The Sleep Doctor

This article on sleep and memory, and other sleep articles, is also available at Dr. Breus’s official blog, The Insomnia Blog.

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