How Does Sleep Affect Our Long term and Short term memory?

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How Does Sleep Affect Our Long Term and Short-Term Memory?
The capacity to create memories is essential for humans, primarily due to changing environmental needs. Studies that show the benefits of sleep to memory have been the focus of experimental research. Sleep is a reversible and natural period of minimized receptiveness to external actions, and it is characterized by lack of awareness (Rasch and Born 681). Sleep arises frequently and is regulated homeostatically. For instance, if there is a delay or loss of sleep, then the subsequent resting period will be longer. Sleep disturbances and sleep deficiency can result in severe cognitive and emotional issues (Wilhelm 3705). The quality and quantity of sleep directly influence the short term and long-term memory since it is a time when the brain consolidates memories.
Background
Animals that have gone without sleep for several weeks started to exhibit unregulated changes in temperature and weight and finally die due to infections, diseases and tissue lesions. Sleep is a common thing that happens among vertebrates like reptiles, fishes, and birds, and sleeplike periods have also been observed in invertebrates, including cockroaches, bees, and flies (Rasch and Born 682). Previous studies that were carried out on mice suggest that over six hours of sleep deprivation resulted in the loss of connections between network connections located in the hippocampus, the brain's region that leads with memory and learning (Fleury Curado et al., 2018). The relationship between synapses is vital for memory, and their capability to pass signals is impacted due to lack of sleep, which then affects memory.
Sleep among mammals comprises of two stages: rapid-eye-movement (REM) and slow-wave sleep (SWS), which substitute in a cyclic approach (Wilhelm 3704). Among humans, SWS occurs during the first part and reduces in duration and intensity during the entire sleep period, while REM sleep is more extensive and intense during the last stages of the sleep period (Wilhelm 3704). REM sleep involves low-amplitude and wake like fast oscillatory brain changes and is also known as paradoxical sleep. On the other hand, SWS involves high-amplitude and slow EEG oscillations, which is also known as slow-wave activity (SWA). Additionally, REM sleep includes muscle atonia and phasic REMs.
Memory and Age
The formation and retrieval of memories is an essential ability for all animals. It allows them to adapt to different settings and behavior as a coping mechanism to the changing needs around it. Memory involves three main subprocesses. These are retrieval, consolidation, and encoding. The encoding process entails the awareness of a stimulus, which leads to the creation of a new memory (Ashworth et al., 89). However, this process can be affected by disruptions and other factors, such as forgetting. During the consolidation stage, the memory’s labile state is stabilized slowly through the use of the short term and long-term consolidation processes, and play a role in integrating and improving the memory into established information networks in the brain. During the recovery phase, the stored memory can be accessed and can be recalled. According to Ra...