Yet ANOTHER reason why sleep is so vital missing even two hours a night can erase memories for ever

Just two hours of missed sleep is enough to stop the brain from laying down and storing memories.. replay of our memories while we are asleep is essential for their proper storage in the brain..

Without a good night’s sleep tonight, you may have no recollection of reading this by tomorrow.

Just two hours of missed slumber is enough to stop the brain from laying down and storing memories, research suggests – and simply dropping from eight hours of sleep to six could make the difference.

What is more, any memories lost due to not getting enough shut-eye may be gone for ever, the Society for Neuroscience’s annual conference heard.

Researcher Ted Abel said: ‘I think what it really means for modern life is that sleep is not a luxury.

‘It is really critically important for the brain and for the brain to function and for you to be able to really remember and consolidate what’s happened to you over the day.

‘I think we often feel that if we could grab a cup of coffee and answer five more emails, we would have done everything we could do. Sometimes it might be better to go to sleep and deal with it after.’

Professor Abel and his team form the University of Pennsylvania looked at how mice that were stopped from sleeping fared on a memory task.

The creatures were kept awake for varying amounts of time, to pinpoint just how little sleep had to be lost for their recall to be damaged.

The professor told the New Orleans conference: ‘What we found is that when we deprived animals of sleep, that impaired storage of memories.

‘And most importantly we found out that a very short period of time would block memory consolidation, it was as short as three hours, which for mice is something like 20 per cent of their sleep over 24 hours.

‘In human terms, it would be the equivalent of dropping an eight-hour night of sleep to six hours, which is something we do all the time.’

It is thought that the replay of our memories while we are asleep is essential for their proper storage in the brain.

The study also suggested that there is a critical period after learning during in which memories are consolidated, meaning that loss of sleep at some points in time may be more damaging than at others.

(EXCERPTS - DAILY MAIL)