Sleep helps consolidate our memory of complex associations, thus supporting the ability to complete memories of whole events.
Researchers had known for some time that sleep consolidates our memories of facts and episodic events. However, the research to date has concentrated mainly on simple associations — that is to say, connections between elements, such as we make when learning new vocabulary. “But in real life, events are generally made up of numerous components — for example, a place, people, and objects — which are linked together in the brain,” explains Dr. Nicolas Lutz from LMU’s Institute of Medical Psychology. These associations can vary in strength and some elements might be connected with each other only indirectly. “Thanks to the neural connections that underlie these associations, a single cue word is often all it takes for somebody to recall not only individual…
