When a robot goes to sleep, what does it dream about? Atari games, apparently. In humans, nocturnal sleep (or even daytime naps) helps to consolidate memory, shifting short-term memory to long-term storage. Through three distinct processes — stabilization, enhancement, and integration — your brain transfers memories into an uber-organized filing system for easier recall in the future. First, stabilization encodes a memory in all of six milliseconds. Next, the brain enhances the memory over minutes, hours, or a full day to solidify it into your longer-term memory. Finally, the integration process occurs, which is where the brain adds new pieces…
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