The hippocampus is highly compromised after a sleep-deprived night and struggles to translate new learning into any permanent skill-building. During the deep phase of sleep, the hippocampus takes memories from short-term memory to long-term memory in the cortex. Once the short-term memory has been cleaned, it is fresh and free to receive new information and hence, the process of learning is a lot more effective after a good night’s rest. As any performance enhancement requires continuous practice, exposure to new information and learning new skills, the benefits of sleep are quite obvious.
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