Here’s the deal: your hippocampus—the part of your brain responsible for short-term memory—is like an overworked USB drive.
It holds new information temporarily, but when it’s full, your brain says, “Sorry, try again tomorrow.”
Worse? It starts mixing old and new info together like a chaotic blender.
Scientists call this memory interference.
But don’t worry—your brain has a built-in reset button: sleep.
Here's a picture of me and my daughter literally studying:
What a nap can do that coffee can't?
Researchers tested this with two groups:
Nap Group: Took a 90-minute nap.
No-Nap Group: Stayed awake scrolling the internet or playing games.
Both groups then tried learning a new set of info. The result?
The Nap Group improved learning by 20%.
The No-Nap Group? Totally stuck.
Why? Because sleep does what caffeine can’t—it clears your hippocampus and sends old info to long-term storage.
As if you've moved the stuff from your USB drive somewhere else and now you can use it again, time for new learning!
So what's really happening during sleep?
During deep sleep, your brain fires off sleep spindles—tiny bursts of electrical activity.
These spindles transfer memories from the hippocampus (short-term storage) to the cortex (long-term storage).
The result? Your brain wakes up refreshed and ready to absorb new info.
Got an overloaded brain? Try hitting snooze instead of another cup of coffee. Your hippocampus will thank you.
Want to learn English smarter (not harder)? Check out Tina's online 1-1 lessons. Work with your brain, not against it.
Tina is a professional English Teacher with a Cambridge education and 10+ years of teaching English to adults in-person and online.
She wants you and English learners like you to develop a solid understanding of what you need to do to start speaking better English faster (and not fall for English-in-a-month scams).
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