Learning

Sleep + Conferences = Learning

Why is it important for conference attendees to sleep? This brain expert knows.

john_medina

It’s clear that we just can’t get enough of molecular biologist John Medina. A  2012 PCMA Convening Leaders general session speaker, Dr. Medina made not one but two return engagements on Monday — as PCMA’s Education Conference opening general session speaker, and then later in the afternoon at a deep-dive session. (We’ve also interviewed Dr. Medina in Convene several times, most recently in our May issue.)

Facilitator Adrian Segar, who has been helping to make the entire conference more participatory, got in a few questions for Dr. Medina at the afternoon session before turning it over to attendees, who packed an alcove of Fort Lauderdale’s sun-filled convention center. Dr. Medina’s booming voice and wonderfully manic presentation style — which are almost too big for a ballroom to contain — swelled this pocket of the center, keeping the group riveted.

That went double for me when Dr. Medina started talking about sleep, the cover story of our June issue. In his animated style, he shared the results of a lab study that showed that while a rat was sleeping, its brain was relearning the maze it had run during the day.

While our story explored a number of reasons why good sleep is important during conferences, Dr. Medina nailed it with his particular approach to human brain function: It turns out that sleep’s most important purpose is to enable us to process what we’ve learned during the day.

Michelle Russell

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.