The groundbreaking research appears in a paper, \u201cThe Critical Role of Sleep Spindles in Hippocampal-Dependent Memory: A Pharmacology Study,\u201d published in the Journal of Neuroscience<\/i>.<\/p>\n Earlier research found a correlation between sleep spindles \u2014 bursts of brain activity that last for a second or less during a specific stage of sleep \u2014 and consolidation of memories that depend on the hippocampus<\/strong>. The hippocampus, part of the cerebral cortex, is important in the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory, and spatial navigation. The hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain damaged by Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n Mednick and her research team demonstrated, for the first time, the critical role that sleep spindles\u00a0 play in consolidating memory in the hippocampus, and they showed that pharmaceuticals could significantly improve that process<\/strong>, far more than sleep alone.<\/p>\n In addition to Mednick the research team includes:\u00a0 Elizabeth A. McDevitt, UC San Diego; James K. Walsh, VA San Diego Healthcare System, La Jolla, Calif; Erin Wamsley, St. Luke\u2019s Hospital, St. Louis, Mo.; Martin Paulus, Stanford University; Jennifer C. Kanady, Harvard Medical School; and Sean P.A. Drummond, UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that a very common sleep drug can be used to increase verbal memory<\/strong>,\u201d said Mednick, the lead author of the paper that outlines results of two studies conducted over five years with a $651,999 research grant from the National Institutes of Health. \u201cThis is the first study to show you can manipulate sleep to improve memory. It suggests sleep drugs could be a powerful tool to tailor sleep to particular memory disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n A total of 49 men and women between the ages of 18 and 39 who were normal sleepers were given varying doses of zolpidem (Ambien) or sodium oxybate (Xyrem), and a placebo<\/strong>, allowing several days between doses to allow the pharmaceuticals to leave their bodies. Researchers monitored their sleep, measured sleepiness and mood after napping, and used several tests to evaluate their memory.<\/p>\n The researchers found that zolpidem significantly increased the density of sleep spindles and improved verbal memory consolidation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201c(P)harmacologically enhancing sleep spindles in healthy adults produces exceptional memory performance beyond that seen with sleep alone or sleep with the comparison drug (sodium oxybate),\u201d the sleep researchers wrote. \u201c\u2026 The results set the stage for targeted treatment of memory impairments as well as the possibility of exceptional memory improvement above that of a normal sleep period.\u201d<\/p>\n Mednick said one of the next steps in this line of research is to determine which component of the physical response to Ambien \u2014 the amnesia associated with the drug, or something related to a specific aspect of sleep \u2014 is responsible for increasing the density of sleep spindles and\u00a0 the resulting consolidation of memory. She also hopes to study the impact of zolpidem on older adults, who experience poor declarative memory and also decreased sleep spindles. Individuals with Alzheimer\u2019s, dementia and schizophrenia also experience decreases in sleep spindles.<\/p>\n \u201cCould we find a dose response, for example, the more Ambien, the more benefit?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Sleep is a very new field of research and its importance is generally not taught in medical schools, Mednick said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know very little about it,\u201d said Mednick, who began studying sleep in the early 2000s with research into how naps benefit perceptual learning. \u201cWe do know that it affects behavior, and we know that sleep is integral to a lot of disorders with memory problems. We need to integrate sleep into medical diagnoses and treatment strategies<\/strong>. This research opens up a lot of possibilities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the UCR press release by Bettye Miller via EurekAlert!: A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[42,18,362],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11457"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11518,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11457\/revisions\/11518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"man_sleeping\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/man_sleeping.jpg\")
<\/a>A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate memory and found that a commonly prescribed sleep aid enhances the process<\/strong>. Those discoveries could lead to new sleep therapies that will improve memory for aging adults and those with dementia, Alzheimer\u2019s and schizophrenia.<\/p>\n