Dream on… and Learn Better M


odern science has estab- lished that sleep can be an important tool for enhancing memory and learning skills. A new study at Beth Israel Deacon- ess Medical Center sheds light on the role that dreams play in this process. “After nearly 100 years of debate about the func- tion of dreams, this study tells us that dreams are the brain’s way of


processing, integrating and really understanding new information,” says senior author Robert Stickgold, Ph.D. “Dreams are a clear indication that the sleeping brain is working on memories at multiple levels, including ways that will directly improve performance.”


Indeed, according to the researchers, these new findings suggest that dreams may be the sleeping brain’s way of telling us that it is hard at work on the process of memory consolidation—integrating our recent experiences to help us with performance-related tasks in the short run, as well as over the long term. In other words, dreams help us translate this material into information that has broad ap- plication in our lives.


Acupuncture Helps Heart Patients R


BLUSHING COULD


SAVE FACE Most people try to hide their blushes when they’re embar- rassed, but new research published in the journal Emo- tion suggests that the facial expressions can actually serve an important role in smoothing social interactions. Researchers from the


esearch news from Germany reports that acupuncture can improve exercise tolerance in patients suffering from chronic heart failure. The researchers gave such patients—who were on conventional medi- cation and stable—10 sessions of acupunc- ture, focusing on the healing method’s pres- sure points that boost general strength, and according to traditional Chinese medicine, influence the nervous system and inflam- mation. The control group was treated with placebo needles that did not break the skin. The needles did not increase the heart’s pumping function, but they seemed to have an influence on skeletal muscle


strength, and increased the distance that the heart patients were able to walk in a given time. The acupuncture patients also recovered more quickly from the exercise and tended to feel less general exhaustion.


This finding could provide a useful option in the future if relatively low-cost acupuncture treatment can work to improve the prognosis for cardiac patients over the long term.


University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, had participants read vignettes about typi- cal social transgressions and mishaps, and then rate how favorably they felt about the faces of the ostensible social culprits. Blushing people were judged more favorably than non-blushers, regardless of the other emotional cues on their face. The researchers argue that blushing signals a sincere ac- knowledgement of wrongdoing and communicates to others that we won’t make the same mistake again. They concluded that blushing might prevent people from being socially ex- cluded after committing some kind of transgression. It could actually help us, yes, save face.


Source: GreaterGood.Berkeley.edu natural awakenings February 2011 9


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