Sleep Can Fuse Conflicting Tasks in Brain, University of Chicago Study

A good night’s sleep helps the brain retain multiple, potentially conflicting memories, according to new research with starlings. Other studies have shown that sleep consolidates learning for a new task. The new study, which measured starlings’ ability to recognize new songs, shows that learning a second task can undermine the performance of a previously learned task. But this study shows that sleep helps the brain consolidate learning when two new potentially competing tasks are learned in the same day.