Hacking your memory -- with sleep | Sleeping with Science, a TED series

Transcriber: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

Whether you're cramming for an exam

翻译人员: C Cheng 校对人员: Wanting Zhong

无论你是在考前临时抱佛脚，

or trying to learn a new musical instrument

还是在试图学习一件新的乐器，

or even trying to perfect a new sport,

甚至是打算提高一项新的运动技能，

sleep may actually be your secret memory weapon.

睡眠都可能是 帮助你记忆的秘密武器。

[Sleeping with Science]

[ 科学睡眠 ]

Studies have actually told us that sleep is critical for memory

实际上，研究已经告诉我们

睡眠至少在三个方面对记忆很重要。

in at least three different ways.

First, we know that you need sleep before learning

首先，我们知道，在学习前需要睡眠，

to actually get your brain ready,

以使大脑做好准备，

almost like a dry sponge,

让它就像一块干海绵，

ready to initially soak up new information.

准备开始吸收新的信息。

And without sleep, the memory circuits within the brain

没有睡眠，大脑中的记忆回路

effectively become waterlogged, as it were,

就像是吸饱了水的海绵，

and we can't absorb new information.

无法吸收新的信息，

We can't effectively lay down those new memory traces.

也不能有效地铺设 那些新的记忆痕迹。

But it's not only important that you sleep before learning,

但重要的不仅仅是学习前的睡眠，

because we also know that you need sleep after learning

因为我们还知道， 在学习之后你同样需要睡眠，

to essentially hit the save button on those new memories

来为那些新记忆按下保存键，

so that we don't forget.

这样我们才不会遗忘。

In fact, sleep will actually future-proof that information

事实上，睡眠可以 确保大脑内的那些信息

within the brain,

永久保存，

cementing those memories

并将那些记忆固定在

into the architecture of those neural networks.

神经网络的结构之中。

And we've begun to discover

[ 大多数人会忘记我们 95-99% 的梦。] 我们已经开始发现

exactly how sleep achieves this memory-consolidation benefit.

睡眠究竟为何具有 记忆巩固这一优势。

The first mechanism is a file-transfer process.

第一个机制是一个 “文件传输” 的过程。

And here, we can speak about two different structures

在这里，我们会谈到大脑中的

within the brain.

两个不同结构。

The first is called the hippocampus

第一个叫做“海马体”。

and the hippocampus sits on the left and the right side

它位于大脑的

of your brain.

左右两侧。

And you can think of the hippocampus

你可以把海马体大致想象为

almost like the informational inbox of your brain.

大脑中的信息收件箱。

It's very good at receiving new memory files

它非常善于接收并存储

and holding onto them.

新的记忆文件。

The second structure that we can speak about

我们会谈到的第二个结构

is called the cortex.

叫做 “大脑皮层”。

This wrinkled massive tissue that sits on top of your brain.

这一大块布满皱褶的组织 覆盖在大脑的表面。

And during deep sleep,

在深度睡眠期间，

there is this file-transfer mechanism.

这个文件传输机制开始工作。

Think of the hippocampus like a USB stick

你可以把海马体设想成一个 U 盘， [ 短期记忆 ]

and your cortex like the hard drive.

你的大脑皮层就如同一块硬盘。 [ 长期记忆 ]

And during the day, we're going around

白天，我们到处活动，

and we're gathering lots of files,

收集了很多文件，

but then during deep sleep at night,

而在晚上的深度睡眠时，

because of that limited storage capacity,

由于存储空间有限，

we have to transfer those files from the hippocampus

我们必须把文件从海马体

over to the hard drive of the brain, the cortex.

传输到大脑的硬盘，即大脑皮层中。

And that's exactly one of the mechanisms

这个正是深度睡眠

that deep sleep seems to provide.

所提供的机制之一。

But there's another mechanism that we've become aware of

但是，我们逐渐意识到， 还有另外一个机制

that helps cement those memories into the brain.

有助于把记忆凝固在大脑里。

And it's called replay.

这个机制被称为 “重播”。

Several years ago,

几年前，

scientists were looking at how rats learned

科学家们研究老鼠在迷宫中探索时

as they would run around a maze.

是如何进行学习的，

And they were recording the activity in the memory centers of these rats.

并记录了这些老鼠的 记忆中心的神经活动。

And as the rat was running around the maze,

当老鼠在迷宫中四处跑动时，

different brain cells would code different parts of the maze.

不同的脑细胞会对 迷宫的不同区域进行编码。

And so if you added a tone to each one of the brain cells

如果给每个脑细胞 都加上一个音调的话，

what you would hear as the rat was starting to learn the maze

当老鼠开始学习迷宫构造时，

was the signature of that memory.

你就能听到这些记忆的信号。

So it would sound a little bit like ...

它听上去有点像……

(Bouncy piano music)

（跳动的钢琴声）

It was this signature of learning that we could hear.

我们能听到的正是学习的信号。

But then they did something clever.

不过科学家接下来 又做了一件很聪明的事。

They kept listening to the brain as these rats fell asleep,

当这些老鼠进入睡眠后， 他们继续听大脑里的动静。

and what they heard was remarkable.

他们所听到的声音非常惊人。

The rat, as it was sleeping,

在睡眠时，这些老鼠

started to replay that same memory signature.

开始重放同样的记忆信号。

But now it started to replay it almost 10 times faster

但是，它们现在重放的速度

要比清醒时快上差不多10 倍。

than it was doing when it was awake.

So now instead you would start to hear ...

所以，你现在听到的是……

(Fast bouncy piano music)

（快速跳动的钢琴声）

That seems to be the second way

这个似乎是

睡眠强化记忆的第二种方式。

in which sleep can actually strengthen these memories.

Sleep is actually replaying and scoring those memories

睡眠实际上是在重放那些记忆，

into a new circuit within the brain,

并把它们刻画在大脑的一个新回路里，

strengthening that memory representation.

以此来加强那个记忆的表达。

The final way in which sleep is beneficial for memory

睡眠有利于记忆的最后一个方式是

is integration and association.

整合与关联。

In fact, we're now learning that sleep

事实上，我们正在了解到

is much more intelligent than we ever imagined.

睡眠远比我们想象的要智能得多。

Sleep doesn't just simply strengthen individual memories,

睡眠不仅强化单个记忆，

sleep will actually cleverly interconnect new memories together.

它还可以很聪明地 将新的记忆相互连接起来。

And as a consequence,

因此，

you can wake up the next day

第二天醒来时，

with a revised mind-wide web of associations,

你将拥有一个修订过的大脑联想网络。

we can come up with solutions to previously impenetrable problems.

我们就能为之前 令人费解的问题找出解决方案。

And this is probably the reason

这个大概就是为什么

that you've never been told to stay awake on a problem.

人们不会要你 一直清醒着去解决问题，

Instead, you're told to sleep on a problem,

而是说，遇到问题睡一觉 就会有答案，

and that's exactly what the science teaching us.

这正是科学所教给我们的道理。