A study by Harvard Medical School researcher Jeffrey Ellenbogen examined 48 adults aged 18-30. These people were split into four groups randomly. Each group had to memorize sets of word pairs. One group was tested on the word pairs at the end of the day and one group in the morning, after waking. Each group did about the same.

The interesting piece is that in the third and fourth groups, the participants were shown other word pairs right before the test. The group taking the test in the morning did much better than the group taking the test in the evening. Researchers concluded that sleep protects the memories from distraction. This may not seem to be a big deal, but it is a start in learning how sleep impacts memory and learning.

Read More on Sleep and Memory