In an experiment conducted recently in the Netherlands, Dr. Van Someren attempted to earn a greater understanding of REM Sleep. He took young children, who sleep more and learn quicker than adults, and subjected them to a series of tests to see how their learning abilities were affected by a lessening of REM sleep, which we learned in class is hypothesized to be an area where memories are consolidated into the hippocampus for long term storage.

The experiment begins by the children being tested on general memory, such as remembering combinations of letters on a computer keyboard and memorizing groups of words for recall. That evening after a long period of testing, they”™re asked to stay overnight, and fit with headphones and sensors on their heads to create an EEG (Electroencephalogram) while they sleep. Throughout the night, the EEG monitors what depth of sleep their body is experiencing (as we learned in class, Stages 1 through 4 and REM sleep) based on scans every two-seconds. As soon as the machine detected the child begin to enter a deep stage of sleep, it created a quiet beep in their ears, trying to elevate them back to a higher stage. This usually cased the child to shift restlessly, but ensured their sleep stayed in one of the first stages. If the beep did not get a response from the child, it repeated the stimulation a bit louder, until it finally knocked the child out of a deep sleep. This is repeated all night, allowing the child a full night of sleep, in the upper stages only. The next day when everyone woke up, they went through the same series of testing and memory experiments, and noted the results.

While the analysis of this experiment”™s results aren”™t completed yet, preliminary evaluation shows a 20% decrease in memory retention with the children participating in the experiment, compared to the control group who were allowed a full night”™s rest without any beeping. Twenty percent is a very significant fluxuation, making this one of the first experiments to conclusively connect REM sleep with memory retention and learning ability. The importance of this experiment was recognized world-wide, as two American scientists from Harvard seized this opportunity to fly to the Netherlands and witness the procedure first-hand, aiming to then return to Harvard and obtain funding for similar research in the states.

Long term uses of this knowledge could be applied to developing and adapting sleep cycles for injured people trying to rehabilitate their memory from a mind-affecting accident, for example. It”™s findings could be used to construct learning programs used by school students in preparation for large exams such as the SAT or ACT. Even looking beyond initial academic learning, political leaders might slightly tweak or adapt their sleep schedule to allow an increased duration of REM sleep a few days before giving a major speech, to solidify memorization and prevent any errors in delivery. There are vast practical applications for research like this and it”™s importance should not be overlooked.

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