Most people assume that these statements are true:
1. Studying information will lead to remembering that information by putting it into my long-term memory.
2. Practicing a skill repetitively will make that skill part of my muscle memory.
3. When I go to work tomorrow, I’ll remember important conversations I’ve had today.
What if these statements are false, or at least not totally true but more like possibilities?
Sleep researchers have discovered a process they call “synaptic pruning.” Synaptic pruning means that, during sleep, the brain gets rid of some of your synapses, which are the connections around the neurons in your brain.
Essentially, it’s like potential memories are cut away. Now, this is a good thing. It stops your brain from being cluttered with unimportant information that never makes its way to long-term memory. The New York Times ran a headline that said “The Purpose of Sleep? To Forget” in its article on this topic.
It’s a very good thing to cut away much of the information you’ve been exposed to in the course of your day. Think of all the random people and cars you’ve seen, all the unimportant sounds you’ve heard, and anything else that has no relevance or importance to you.
If you’re trying to learn a lot of new information, or if you’re working hard to master a new skill, this brain pruning can also be a bad thing. What if everything you’re trying to remember gets cut away when you sleep? These things are extremely important to you, and you want them to stay in your brain!
The idea of pruning has many implications for you as you master skills. You’ve got to do all your mastery work in such a way that your brain recognizes that work as something highly important so those memories get kept while other, less important stuff gets pruned away.
Make sure that your learning and mastery strategies are the best ones available to give you the best shot at keeping what you’re learning in your long-term memory. Everything you do must be done to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
In addition to the New York Times article on synaptic pruning, I also recommend a Scientific American article on this fascinating subject.
