Over the years, science has delved into the nature and function of sleep. Although there are plenty of unanswered questions, slowly, slumber is giving up its secrets.
One role that sleep seems to play a part in is the consolidation of memories. And although rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been considered important, non-REM (NREM) sleep has gained more interest recently.
If we conclude that sleep is necessary for firming up memories, it stands to reason that broken sleep should have a detrimental effect.
Recently, a group of researchers ran a study investigating whether or not children with disturbed sleep demonstrate impaired memory. They also hunted for any related neural activity.