Our 90-year old friend, let's call her Ellie, had entertained us throughout dinner and been absolutely delightful in a multitude of ways.
Oh sure, there was a little selective forgetting but she is, after all, in her ninth decade. She had a storyteller's recall and a focused wit.
At one point in our dinner conversation she put a delicate, blue-veined hand to her forehead and said, "I really don't mind getting so old, if I could just stop falling asleep all the time." I found the comment sweet and amusing when it was offered, but I'm now thinking it may have a relationship to her overall clarity.
There are many things to say about memory and aging and a variety of ways of saying them. Our ever-vigilant local Alzheimer's Association is taking the first week in October to further educate us about dementia and Alzheimer's disease. There will be loads of events including a Memory Walk, speakers, presentations and even some memory testing to help answer that "Should I be Worried? question. Visit www.medfordalz.org
I have a few things to say about memory and will give a presentation during Memory Week (11 a.m. on Oct. 4 in Grants Pass at the Three Rivers Washington campus) but at this moment I want to focus on one particular aspect of memory management which doesn't always get included. It's the memory-sleep connection.
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During sleep, even a 20-minute afternoon nap, our brains move information from short-term memory to long-term memory. When we sleep, we form new synapses, i.e. connections, between brain cells that can enhance our recall ability.
The findings are summarized in an article on the sleep-memory connection in the recent issue of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) retired educator's publication and referenced on their Web site: www.aarp.org/nrta. "Staying Sharp" is what AARP calls their new emphasis on maintaining and improving memory abilities as we age. They remind us that "the part of the mind where memory is stored becomes highly active during sleep."
I think you can take the sleep-memory connection one step further by including the role of dreaming. When we dream it's rather like being a witness to our own mental activity. According to the Skeptics Dictionary (www.SkepDic.com) all sorts of interesting possibilities are linked to dreaming, everything from prophecy to clairvoyance. Some even say dreams are the gateway to another world.
But the less skeptical, more science-based, studies are beginning to indicate dreams, and not just the sleep that goes with them, improve memory. Think of those little synapses in your head firing away on all cylinders all night long while you lie in a relaxing dream-state.
And not to worry, if you can't remember your dream when you awaken — you'll probably be more likely to remember other important things (like those Memory Week events the first week of October).
Ellie, are you still falling asleep all the time? Sweet dreams.
Sharon Johnson is an associate professor in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University and on the faculty of the OSU Extension Service. Her e-mail is sjohnson@oregonstate.
