As expected, natural sleep solidified memory connections within the brain in the placebo condition that had been formed during the initial learning phase. Ambien-induced sleep, however, not only failed to match these benefits (despite the animals sleeping just as long), but caused a 50 percent weakening (unwiring) of the brain-cell connections originally formed during learning. In doing so, Ambien-laced sleep became a memory eraser, rather than engraver.
