Why 'Sleeping on It' Helps

[snopes]

We're often told, "You should sleep on it" before you make an important decision. Why is that? How does "sleeping on it" help your decision-making process?

Conventional wisdom suggests that by "sleeping on it," we clear our minds and relieve ourselves of the immediacy (and accompanying stress) of making a decision. Sleep also helps organize our memories, process the information of the day, and solve problems. Such wisdom also suggests that conscious deliberation helps decision making in general. But new research suggests something else might also be at work - our unconscious.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...epingonithelps

[snapdragonfly]

I noticed years ago that if there was something I was trying to remember, like where I had put something, or think of a solution to a problem, or come up with a creative idea for something, or otherwise figure out something that seemed to be eluding me, that if I sort of focused on letting to come to me over night, often I would wake up and it would be right there in the front of my mind the minute I woke up.

I just figured that it was in my mind somewhere and that it got found and sorted out while asleep.

I am a firm believer in sleeping on it; for whatever reason, it does seem to be helpful.

[Spud Sabre]

I had a teacher who told me that learning something just before going to sleep is the best way to put it into your long-term memory.

Also, it makes sense to me that sleeping on it helps with stress. When are people more calm than when they are having a good sleep?