Extra sleep may help restore memory

April 25, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 02:01 am IST

An extra three to four hours of sleep daily over as little as two days has been found to restore memories in fruit flies with an Alzheimer’s-like condition. The findings have implications for humans as according to the researchers, brain mechanisms that control sleep in fruit flies are similar to those seen in human beings.

Sleep helps the brain reinforce connections between brain cells that encode important memories and cut back connections that encode useless information, the researchers said. The study appeared online in the journal Current Biology .

IANS

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