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I always slept with the book under my head before a test (never helped!).  But a new study has found that sleep after learning strengthens connections between brain cells and improves memory. Sleep helps consolidate and strengthen new memories, according to newswise.com. "Sleep after learning encourages the growth of the tiny protrusions from brain cells that connect to other brain cells and facilitate the passage of information across synapses, the junctions at which brain cells meet. Moreover, the activity of brain cells during deep sleep, or slow-wave sleep, after learning is critical for such growth," the Web site reports.  The study showed for the first time how learning and sleep cause physical changes in the motor cortex, a brain region responsible for voluntary movements. “We’ve known for a long time that sleep plays an important role in learning and memory. If you don’t sleep well you won’t learn well,” says senior investigator Wen-Biao Gan, PhD, pro...

When we were first dating, my husband and I decided to take a car trip through Canada.  We sailed, with our car, on a ferry from Maine to New Brunswick and started the drive. The deal was, you drove to a different city each day and stayed overnight, making your way slowly through Canada. As we started out, it seemed like a great idea.  We were free (no cell phones or iPads in those days) and as we drove, we talked.  I'll admit some of it wasn't so nice, like having to stop by the side of the road every afternoon so he could nap (and he was only 34! but this was befoe we knew he had ADHD), and not wanting to stop, when I did, to shop.  Looking back on it, I see it could have been a disaster.  We didn't know each other that well yet and hours alone in a car could have been, well, a calamity.  But we got through it, and pretty much enjoyed it (except when I was driving and he slept the whole time).   And now a new study confirms what we knew.  ...