Sleep Is for Forgetting

Abstract

It is possible that one of the essential functions of sleep is to take out the garbage, as it were, erasing and "forgetting" information built up throughout the day that would clutter the synaptic network that defines us. It may also be that this cleanup function of sleep is a general principle of neuroscience, applicable to every creature with a nervous system.

Keywords: REM sleep; TR sleep; depotentiation; development; mental health; noradrenaline; spindles; theta.

Figure 1.

Graphic depiction of the importance of weakening synapses to incorporate new information into old schemas. A, A simplified Christmas schema as might be presented to a small child. B, When that child first learns that Santa is a myth and therefore cannot bring the toys, the new information is laid upon the schema during waking. C, During sleep, the old schema is updated with the new information tying the gifts to the family members and inserting a “no” to the “Santa Toys” item information for an altered but singular schema of Christmas. Depotentiation of the old Santa belief is necessary to form this coherent new schema and make it accessible without confusion.

Figure 2.

Disambiguating the teacher Gwen from the grandmother Gwen requires sleep-dependent consolidation of the novel information while protecting the grandmother schema.