Mathematics At Bedtime May Help Improve Mathematical Memory.

 Two researchers in the United Kingdom created a study looking at how sleep intersects with mathematical memory.  They looked at how sleep impacted the learning of multiplication factors.  More specifically, they examined whether learning complex multiplication problems before going to sleep helped them recall the material.  

Their study involved adults between the age of 18 and 40.  In this study, they learned complex problems either before they went to sleep or after they woke up in the morning. Some of the problems were on new material or previously learned material.  The sessions were both timed and untimed. In addition the tests were given 10 hours after subjects studied the math.

Results indicated that those who worked with math prior to going to sleep tended to better than those who did it in the morning. The results were the same even when you looked at the differing learning abilities.  One theory indicates that the material is temporarily stored and reactivated in the brain when people sleep. Thus material learned at night has a better chance to consolidate than that learned during the day.

The results have some interesting applications for elementary children who are learning their times tables or other mathematical memorization skills.  If these results translate to children, then if they have a math lesson before bed, they could possibly better learn the material than at school.

The authors also suggested that the sleep helped adults better recall possible due to the lack of external stimuli. During the day, people are surrounded by more noise and stimuli than at home so the brain takes advantage of it. They also thought the brain is able to lock in the information at night due to having no other competition.  When the learning takes place in the morning, the brain is exposed to conversations, media, reading, digital devices. or other classes.

It is possible that the competition for memory during the day may be the cause in the differences between learning material at night and day but more study will be needed to determine that. Further more, there needs to be some study done to see if having students practice mathematical skills that require memorization are better learned at night.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.