This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkins.

When someone tells you to sleep on it, they're usually suggesting that you avoid making

rash decisions.

But sleep is also widely known to help you remember things you've learned.

Now, a nap might seem inconvenient when you're cramming for an exam, but don't worry.

There's a new study shows that rats who stayed awake after engaging with novel objects could

remember seeing those things a week later.

Sometimes better than rats who'd slept.

That suggests that long-term memories can be laid down without having to lay down.

The results appear in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We know that memory consolidation is promoted by a slip.

Marion Inastorosa of the University of Tubingan.

She says that decades of studies have shown that sleep helps to transform or consolidate

recent experiences into lasting memories.

However, there is also evidence for consolidation into long-term memory during wakefulness.

And against this background, we became interested in the question whether sleep is the only condition,

is the critical condition for the formation of long-term memories.

Jan Bourne directs the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University

of Tubingan.

For Bourne, the bottom line is, to find out, the researchers allowed rats to investigate

a novel object.

The animals were then moved to a resting cage, where some were allowed to snooze, while

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