A study investigating the role of sleep and memory shows how one night of sleep can lead to changes in brain activity six months after an event has occurred.

Researchers found that a good night’s sleep after learning word pairs enhances memory processing in the hippocampus, and also induces information transfer between the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This transfer serves to consolidate memories, helping new memories become stable and immune to interfering stimuli.