My own theory is that sleep amplifies many of the techniques we’ve discussed in this book. The spacing effect described in chapter 4, for instance, is especially strong with intervals of a day or two (plus sleep). Philip Ballard’s “reminiscence”—that puzzling improvement in memory of “The Wreck of the Hesperus” poem described in chapter 2—crested in the first day or two. A good night’s sleep could surely loosen the “fixedness” that makes it hard to see a solution to the Pencil Problem, discussed in chapter 6, right away. The brain is likely doing many of the same things with information while
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