Dhaka, June 23 -- One of sleep's key functions is to stabilize and integrate new memories into our brain's long-term memory systems, a process known as "consolidation." This idea is now widely accepted, though it wasn't always. The details remain very much under investigation, however: what kinds of memories are prioritized, how consolidation unfolds, and exactly when different forms of consolidation occur. In this post, I'll be focusing on the "what" of the many things that we learn each day, which kinds of information does sleep strengthen?One important factor is how well the material was learned in the first place. In studies where participants learn pairs of words (e.g., apple-chair) to varying degrees, it has been the weakly learned ...