Sleeping on it may help solve problems

[Guest guest]

Sleeping on it may help solve

problemshttp://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 & click_id=31 & art_id=qw1098943

921434B241

October 28 2004 at 07:57PM

 

By Sylvia Pabst

 

Hamburg - " Why not just sleep on it " - the advice often given by good

friends when it comes to solving a problem really works, according to

scientists at the University of Luebeck in northern Germany.

 

A team of scientists led by neuro-endocrinologist Professor Jan Born

found that people who were asked to solve several riddles after they slept

on it where much faster in finding the answer than a comparable group who

had not slept.

 

" Sleeping promotes insight, " Born says pointing out that the research

had shown that the brain restructures the information from the day during

sleep.

 

'Sleep is also necessary for effective learning'

" Sleep is not only good for relaxation but also for the solution of

problems. Sleep is also necessary for effective learning, " he says.

 

New information is linked to information from the long-term memory, "

the expert says. So-called delta sleep, the sleep without dreams, is

especially important for this.

 

Sleeping not only strengthens normal memory but also the " memory " of

the immune system that seems to function better after a good sleep. A person

going to sleep after an immunisation formed a better " memory " against

infections, according to Born.

 

He points to an example of where participants in a test were immunised

against hepatitis A. Half of the group slept as normal while the other

remained awake.

 

" Four weeks later the participants who did not go to sleep after

immunisation only had half as many anti-bodies as the group who went to

sleep, " Born explains.

 

But psychologist Petra Hasselbach from the University Clinic in

Heidelberg, who investigated the effects of sleep duration, has a warning

for people who overdo it and sleep too much.

 

They have double the risk of dying in the next 10 years comparedto

people who sleep on average six to eight hours a night.

 

Around 800 sleep researchers and medical doctors from Germany,

Switzerland and Austria recently debated the latest research at the 12th

annual congress of the German Association of Sleep Research (DGSM) at the

Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg. - Sapa-dpa