- Sleep is critical for memory consolidation and adults need at least seven hours
- Not getting enough shut-eye can lead to memories not being formed properly
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Kim Kardashian is a busy woman. So busy that the lack of proper rest is destroying her memory, she recently claimed.
In the latest episode of The Kardashians, which aired on Hulu this week, the reality TV mogul and businesswoman claimed her manic schedule was resulting in memory lapses.
She said: ‘I looked on TikTok and saw me walking up to people, fans that I know and love, telling them all of our SKIMS secrets about how we’re launching men’s soon… actually no recollection of this.’
‘It felt like a dream. Like, did I go? I thought I dreamt that. Like this whole morning has been a complete foggy dream,’ she added.
In the episode, the mom of four, blamed her brain blanks on a lack of sleep.
Kim Kardashian revealed on the latest episode of The Kardashians that she was so overtired from her manic schedule that she suffered blackouts and could not remember meeting fans
But can a shortage of shut eye really cause memory blackouts? Yes, according to experts.
A number of studies show that sleep is critical for memory consolidation – and getting six hours or less can affect both short-term and long-term memory.
A lack of sleep impacts the part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is vital for creating new memories.
Writing on the National Institute of Health website, Dr Matthew Walker, sleep scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, said: ‘We’ve learned that sleep before learning helps prepare your brain for initial formation of memories.
‘Sleep after learning is essential to help save and cement that new information into the architecture of the brain, meaning that you’re less likely to forget it.’
Memory consolidation is believed to take place during both the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM), or very deep, stages of the sleep cycle.
During the NREM stages, the first two stages of lighter sleep, the brain will sort through memories from the previous day, extracting important ones and getting rid of superfluous information.
As the brain enters REM sleep, these memories will become deeper.
The REM stage is also when emotional memories are processed, which can help the mind deal with difficult experiences.
People who do not get enough sleep may have a hard time remembering things because the brain has not had enough time to create new pathways, according to Dr Anis Rehman from The Sleep Foundation.
Research has also demonstrated that sleep strengthens the neural connections that form memories.
Being sleep-deprived means those neurons are overworked and cannot function properly, meaning information is not adequately processed in the brain the next day.
According to the National Institutes of Health, if you get no sleep in one night, your ability to learn new things could decrease by up to 40 percent.
