How Sleep Helps Us Learn Reading Answers

Jul 14, 2025

How Sleep Helps Us Learn Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. How Sleep Helps Us Learn Reading Answers has a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. In the first question set, you have to match the statement with the correct paragraph. In the next question set, you have to write one word only for each answer. In the last question set, you have to match the statement with the correct researcher

The IELTS Reading section is an essential part of the test that evaluates a candidate's comprehension and analysis of various passage types. You will work through several IELTS reading practice problems in this section that resemble actual test situations. These questions are designed to help you improve your ability to recognise essential concepts, extract particular facts, and make inferences. Practising these IELTS reading problems can help you get comfortable with the structure and increase your confidence for the exam, regardless of whether you are studying for the Academic or General Training module.

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Section 1

HOW SLEEP HELPS US LEARN

Researchers are uncovering the link between sleep and learning and how it changes throughout our lives.

A.Most research into the relationship between memory and sleep has traditionally been conducted using young adults or animals. By the early 2000s, scientists had found that sleep helps young adults consolidate memory by reinforcing and filing away daytime experiences. But the older adults that Rebecca Spencer was studying at the US University of Massachusetts Amherst didn't seem to experience the same benefit. Spencer wondered if age altered the relationship between sleep and memory, and chose nearby preschool children as subjects. She found that the children who regularly had short sleeps during the day benefited the most from daytime rest, largely because their memories decayed the most without these naps. "By staying awake, they have more interference from daytime experiences," Spencer explains.

B.The studies on young adults carried out in the early 2000s suggested that the reduced sensory inputs during sleep allow the brain to replay daytime experiences during a period relatively free of distracting information. This may help to solidify connections and transfer daytime memories from one part of the brain, known as the hippocampus, into long-term storage in the brain region called the cortex. But how sleep and memory interact at different periods of our lives remained an open question.

C.In children younger than 18 months, learning is thought to occur in the cortex because the hippocampus isn't yet fully developed. As a result, researchers hypothesize that infants don't replay memories during sleep, the way adults do. Instead, sleep merely seems to prevent infants from forgetting as much as they would if they were awake. “The net effect is that sleep permits infants to retain more of the redundant details of a learning experience," says experimental psychologist Rebecca Gömez of the University of Arizona. "By the time they are two years old, we think that children have the brain development that supports an active process of consolidation," she adds.

D.From the age of two, adequate sleep during the hours of darkness becomes critical for learning. Toddlers who sleep less than 10 hours display lasting cognitive deficits, even if they catch up on sleep later in their development. The effects are particularly strong in children with

developmental disorders, who often suffer from disturbed sleep. Jamie Edgin of the University of Arizona studied children with the genetic disorder Down's syndrome, comparing those who were sleep-impaired with those who slept normally. She found that there were large differences in

language knowledge and observed that the non-sleep-impaired children knew up to 190 more words, even after controlling for behavioural differences.

E.Understanding the impact of sleep on memory could also help another at-risk group of learners at the other end of the age spectrum. Previous research has suggested that older adults don't remember recently acquired motor skills as well as young adults do. But neuroscientist Maria Korman and her colleagues at the University of Haifa in Israel recently demonstrated that taking a nap soon after learning can allow the elderly to retain procedural memories just as well as younger people. Korman hypothesizes that by shortening the interval between learning and consolidation, the nap prevents intervening experiences from weakening the memory before it solidifies. Overnight sleep might be even better, if the motor skills—in this case, a complex sequence of finger and thumb movements on the non-dominant hand—are taught late enough in the day.

F.Optimizing the timing of sleep and training in the elderly exploits something Korman sees as She found that there were large differences in languagepositive side of growing old. "As we age, our neural system becomes more aware of the relevance of the task," Korman says. Unlike young adults, who solidify all the information they acquire throughout the day, older people consolidate those experiences that were tagged by the brain as very important.

G.Tests on older adults' memories are generating new findings about the relationship between sleep and memory at other ages as well. After learning at a conference about a memory test for cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults, neuroscientist Jeanne Duffy of Brigham and

Women's Hospital in Boston wondered if sleep could help strengthen the connection between names and faces. She and her colleagues found that young adults who slept overnight after learning a list of 20 names and faces showed a 12 per cent increase in retention when tested 12 hours later, compared with subjects who didn't sleep between training and testing. The findings have "an immediate real-world application," Duffy says, as they address a common memory concern among people of all ages.

H.Developing a fuller picture Of What happens to memories during sleep—and how best to modify sleep habits to aid the recall process—could benefit some of society's most sleep-deprived members of every age. “We need to understand this role of sleep in memory because there is such potential for intervention,” Spencer says. “Now that we have a well-founded concept of what sleep can do for memory, it's time to put it to the test”

Questions 14-19

The text has eight sections, A-H. Find the correct match.

Which section contains the following information?

14. A description of how sleep helps infants retain details of their experiences

Answer: C

Supporting statement: The net effect is that sleep permits infants to retain more of the redundant details of a learning experience," says experimental psychologist Rebecca Gömez of the University of Arizona.

Keywords: infants, learning experience

Keyword Location: Para C, Lines 4-6

Explanation: Section C of the passage contains information about infants being able to retain more details of their experiences due to sleep.

15. A comparison between the memory consolidation processes of young and older

adults

Answer: F

Supporting statement: Unlike young adults, who solidify all the information they acquire throughout the day, older people consolidate those experiences that were tagged by the brain as very important.

Keywords: young adults, acquire, older people

Keyword Location: Para F, Line 4

Explanation: Section F states a comparison in the way of memory consolidation processes between young and old people.

16. A study showing how sleep deprivation affects language development in children with a

genetic disorder

Answer: D

Supporting statement: She found that there were large differences in language knowledge and observed that the non-sleep-impaired children knew up to 190 more words, even after controlling for behavioural differences.

Keywords: large differences, children

Keyword Location: Para D, Lines 6-7

Explanation: Section D mentions a study done by Jamie Edgin of the University of Arizona on children with the genetic disorder Down syndrome, showing how sleep deprivation affects the child's ability to learn new language.

17. A reference to the role of the hippocampus in memory storage

Answer: B

Supporting statement: This may help to solidify connections and transfer daytime memories from one part of the brain, known as the hippocampus, into long-term storage in the brain region called the cortex.

Keywords: hippocampus, brain region, cortex

Keyword Location: Para B, Lines 3-5

Explanation: Section B states the role of the hippocampus as the daytime memory storage area of the brain.

18. A suggestion that overnight sleep may be more effective for learning certain skills

Answer: E

Supporting statement: Overnight sleep might be even better, if the motor skills—in this case, a complex sequence of finger and thumb movements on the non-dominant hand—are taught late enough in the day.

Keywords: Overnight sleep, motor skills, non-dominant

Keyword Location: Para E, Lines 8-9

Explanation: Section E of the passage states that overnight sleep might be more effective for learning certain skills, such as the complex sequence of finger and thumb movements on the non-dominant hand.

19. An example of a real-world application of sleep research

Answer: G

Supporting statement: The findings have "an immediate real-world application," Duffy says, as they address a common memory concern among people of all ages.

Keywords: real-world, common memory

Keyword Location: Para G, Line 8

Explanation: Section G mentions that neuroscientist Jeanne Duffy of Brigham conducted a test whose results indicated that the people remembered the names and faces shown to them before an overnight sleep, whereas people who did not sleep overnight did not retain much information.

Questions 20-23

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

But Rebecca Spencer noticed that her own research subjects did not appear to get as much (20)............. benefit from sleep as the subjects in other studies did. She wanted to know if a person's (21)............. made any difference to the process of memory consolidation, so she conducted an experiment on children at the (22)............. stage. She found that children who did not have a daytime sleep suffered a higher level of (23)............. from the day's events.

Answer: SAME

Supporting statement: But the older adults that Rebecca Spencer was studying at the US University of Massachusetts Amherst didn't seem to experience the same benefit.

Keywords: Rebecca Spencer, University of Massachusetts

Keyword Location: Para A, Line 4

Explanation: According to the text, Rebecca Spencer found that sleep seems to have less of an impact on her research subjects than it did on those in other studies.

Answer: AGE

Supporting statement: Spencer wondered if age altered the relationship between sleep and memory, and chose nearby preschool children as subjects.

Keywords: age altered, sleep and memory, preschool children

Keyword Location: Para 1, Lines 5–6

Explanation: According to the text, Spencer debated whether ageing changed how sleep and memory were related.

Answer: PRESCHOOL

Supporting statement: and chose nearby preschool children as subjects.

Keywords: preschool, children

Keyword Location: Para 1, Line 6

Explanation: The text states that preschool children were taken as test subjects in Rebecca Spencer's research.

Answer: INTERFERENCE

Supporting statement: "By staying awake, they have more interference from daytime experiences," Spencer explains.

Keywords: interference, daytime experiences

Keyword Location: Para 1, Line 9

Explanation: According to the text, in her experiment, Spencer discovered that kids who didn't sleep during the day experienced more interference from the activities of the day.

Questions 24-26

Look at the following statements and the list of researchers below. Write the correct letter, A, B, C, D.

24. The connection between lack of sleep and vocabulary acquisition

Answer: C

Keywords: language knowledge, 190 more words, behavioural differences

Keyword Location: Para D, Lines 6-8

Explanation: Jamie Edgin from the University of Arizona conducted a study comparing children with Down syndrome, a genetic disease, who slept normally, with those who had sleep impairments. She discovered that, even after adjusting for behavioural variations, the children who were not sleep-impaired understood up to 190 more words, indicating that there were big gaps in language proficiency.

25. The impact of sleep on how well people learn to perform physical actions

Answer: D

Keywords: complex sequence, finger and thumb

Keyword Location: Para E, Lines 8-9

Explanation: According to Korman, the nap stops intervening experiences from weakening the memory before it solidifies by reducing the time between learning and consolidation. Allowing people to perform better physical actions.

26. How the structure of very young brains may influence memory processes

Answer: B

Supporting statement: “The net effect is that sleep permits infants to retain more of the redundant details of a learning experience," says experimental psychologist Rebecca Gömez of the University of Arizona.

Keywords: net effect, psychologist

Keyword Location: Para C, Lines 4-6

Explanation: According to Rebecca Gömez, sleep appears to protect infants from forgetting as much as if they were awake.

A. Rebecca Spencer

B. Rebecca Gömez

C. Jamie Edgin

D. Maria Korman

E. Jeanne Duffy

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