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Published online 8 October 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.151
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Memory shuts down as you doze off
Sleepy people may have a harder time comprehending speech.
Next time you whisper sweet nothings to the object of your affections as they peacefully doze off, don't be surprised if they can't remember a word of it the next morning. Neuroscientists have shown that the brain's pathways for deciphering speech, and forming memories of it, switch off as anaesthetized patients begin to nod off.
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But in some instances, during sleep we can hear and can be able to recall after being exposed a stress. Will there be any operon releated shut on/off that controls this memory shutoff during nights ?
"The results also show that speech comprehension can suffer even when only lightly sedated, or when slightly sleepy, says anaesthetist David Menon of the University of Cambridge." I should think that a more immediate and practical implication of this research, though more obvious as well, is the level of wakefulness of kids in school. Schools (and organizations generally) are oriented around people with morning circadian rhythms not afternoon or evening rhythms. If sleepy students have difficulty comprehending speech then that will compound their difficulties from poor attention as a result of sleepiness.
how can we relate this with dreams? we can remember some dreams but not others, is their any relation of subconscious brain and unconscious brain coming into play here
My partner takes medication to reduce the onset of epileptic seizures. This medication makes her continually drowsy and therefore requiring a LOT of sleep, over 10 hours per day usually. Lately, she's been commenting on her reduced recall of events even a few days prior. Linked, perhaps?
In my experience as a Hypnotherapist, when a patient is in trance - asleep - they are much more receptive and aware of what is being said to them. Some hypnotic techniques actually require the patient to actually be asleep before contact with the subconscious is established. Also, when accident patients are in traumatic coma, they can sometimes be "brought back" by familiar sounds and voices. These observations would put a lie to this entire article and the assunptions made.
In my experience as a Hypnotherapist, when a patient is in trance - asleep - they are much more receptive and aware of what is being said to them. Some hypnotic techniques actually require the patient to actually be asleep before contact with the subconscious is established. Also, when accident patients are in traumatic coma, they can sometimes be "brought back" by familiar sounds and voices. These observations would put a lie to this entire article and the assumptions made.
The observations you made wouldn't necessarily make this article a lie. For one, it's only one observation, which just may be an atypical case. About the accident patients, the article never said that people could not hear sounds, just that they were usually unintelligible to the person and that they usually have no recollection. "The volunteers' brains were more active in response to speech than to generic noise, suggesting that they still recognised spoken words. But the part of the brain involved with the more subtle job of untangling words that can have alternative meanings depending on context or spelling (such as 'bark', or 'pear/pair') showed no activity in the drowsiest volunteers." So yes, patients could recognize a familiar voice subconsciously and be "brought back". Also, from the little I know of hypnosis, a trance is not always necessarily being asleep. Whether you put your patients in an asleep state always, I wouldn't know, but patients under hypnosis that aren't asleep wouldn't apply to this article. In fact, they would be more receptive because they've prepared their selves to be receptive to the person inducing hypnosis, and hence their trance.