Air date: January 17, 2010

Host: Jeremy Shere, PhD

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Did you Know? is presented by Wishard Health Services, becoming Eskenazi Health in 2014.

Did you know that hearing certain sounds while you sleep could improve your memory?

A few years ago, scientists discovered that being exposed to particular smells during sleep helps the brain retain new memories. So they they wondered if sounds could do the same thing.

To test the idea, researchers at Northwestern University designed a memory test. 12 subjects were shown 50 images appearing one at a time on a computer screen. Each image had a related sound, like a meow with a picture of a cat.

The study participants then practiced placing the images where they appeared on the screen from memory, with the aid of sound cues.

After doing this twice, the participants took a short nap, during which the researchers piped in 25 of the 50 sound cues.

After waking, the participants took the test again. And although their scores were lower overall, they did much better placing the images whose related sound cues they'd heard while asleep.

It's too soon to know if the sound cue experiment may have practical benefits, like helping actors memorize lines or students cram for tests. But he takeaway point is that the brain actively works on memory even while we're asleep.

And now you know.

Additional Resources:

• Read more about sleep and memory at WebMD.

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