On Wednesday 15th January, sleep expert Bahar Ghaffari spoke to our parents about the importance of sleep.
Bahar spoke to the audience about the two phases of sleep and more specifically, the sleep cycles of teenagers. She explained that adolescents require deeper sleep (nREM: non-rapid eye movement) for the development of their pre-frontal cortex as well as the impact a teenagerÂ’s emotions can have on sleep.
The audience also heard about the importance of sleep before learning. Bahar explained that sleep refreshes our ability to make new memories and that for fact based learning, a part of our brains called the hippocampus binds bits of information together and stores them. She compared our brains to USB sticks; they have limited space and work as a temporary store for information, and sleep is crucial in enabling us to clear space for new memories. Additionally, Bahar informed us of the benefits of sleep after learning, which include; consolidation of memory and the ability to improve your memory attention by anything from 20-40% compared to if you do not sleep.
Thank you to Bahar for a fascinating insight into the benefits of getting a good night’s sleep. The evening was held in aid of the Hammond Family, raising nearly £900 in memory of Joe Hammond as well as additional pledges towards supporting the family. JoeÂ’s book, ‘A short history of falling: Everything I observed about love whilst dyingÂ’ was available to purchase throughout the evening. If you are interested in purchasing JoeÂ’s book, click here.
