New research manipulates the deep sleep phase and examines its effects on learning new skills.
Manipulating the motor cortex during deep sleep.
On the first day of the experiment - after the first movement learning session - the participants were able to sleep without disturbance.
The reason why this happens, according to the researchers, is that during the manipulated deep sleep, the neurons' synapses did not "rest" as they normally would during restorative sleep.
Such a state inhibits neuroplasticity, which means that learning new things is no longer possible.
This is the first time that a study has proven the causal connection between deep sleep and learning efficiency. »