Join our Waitlist for Expert Advice!

Another Reason to Get a Good Night's Rest -- It Can Help You Focus and Your Brain Forget Different phases of sleep affect how your brain processes information.

By Nina Zipkin

shutterstock

We all know that sleep can help you with focus and health. But did you know why?

A new study out of Paris says different phases of sleep are instrumental both to helping your brain retain information, but also dispose of it.

The researchers had 28 participants listen to a series of sounds while they were asleep and hooked up to machines that monitored their brain waves.

Related: Do You Sleep More Than Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg and Other Leaders?

They looked at the effects of three specific phases of sleep -- rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, light non-REM (NREM) sleep and deep NREM sleep.

When the participants woke up, they were given a series of tests to see how well they recognized the sounds that they had been played.

The researchers found that if they had heard the noises during REM or light NREM sleep, they were more likely to recall what they had heard than if they had been played the sounds during deep NREM sleep. But it was also harder for them to re-learn those sequences than it was to retain new sounds when they were awake.

Related: Want to Sleep Better? Find Your Purpose.

The researchers explained in their findings that this was an early experiment that could lend itself to a better understanding of how we learn.

"Understanding why both REM sleep and light NREM sleep favor learning while deep NREM sleep suppresses it could provide a unified view of the impact of sleep on memory formation," they wrote in the study.

Ultimately, it seems that if you aren't getting a good night's sleep, you're not allowing your brain to fully process all of the information that you get in a given day.

Do yourself a favor: Get the full eight hours and let your mind decompress.

Nina Zipkin

Entrepreneur Staff

Staff Writer. Covers leadership, media, technology and culture.

Nina Zipkin is a staff writer at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers leadership, media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business News

You Have One Month Left to Buy a House, According to Barbara Corcoran. Here's Why.

"If you are planning on waiting a year and seeing where interest rates go, you are out of your mind," Corcoran said.

Business Solutions

Cut Costs, Not Features with This Microsoft Bundle Deal

You get Office, Windows, Project, and Visio for $72.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Data & Recovery

Protect Your Business Data Without Sacrificing Privacy With Koofr Cloud Storage on Sale

Get 1TB of lifetime storage for your business with no recurring fees or data tracking.

Franchise

The McRib Is Back, But Only at Select McDonald's — Here's Where to Find It

This scarcity is nothing new. In 2022, McDonald's announced a "Farewell Tour" for the McRib, suggesting that it might be the last time customers could get their hands on it.

Side Hustle

I Made $14,000 in 1 Week With a Spontaneous Halloween Costume Side Hustle — Here's How

Sabba Keynejad was in art school when he started to refine his entrepreneurial skills.