We are certain that a daily Japanese study session in Cooori, the online language learning software, will help you keep your brain fit and healthy. There are however many other ways and lifestyle choices that can help you keep your body and mind at its best.

All of the following actions can have a positive impact on your brain & long-term memory.
One is even so simple that you can do it whilst you sleep!

Did you know that sleep might be crucial for the brain in order to form long-term memory?

In a study published in the June 2011 issue of Science, University of Washington researchers worked with a special breed of fruit flies that could be made to sleep on demand. Following a period of training, flies that then underwent 4 hours of stimulated sleep formed long-term memories of that specific training session. Note that training alone was not enough to trigger memory consolidation —sleep was a necessary component. Flies who trained but did not sleep did not form long-term memories.

This study makes fascinating observations about the power that sleep has to cause memory formation. But if you're wondering how much we can really learn from fruits flies, then rest assured that many human studies also show that sleep improves memory and performance.

Proper sleep is easy to incorporate into your lifestyle: consider getting a good night's rest after you've diligently studied for your JLPT test, experienced a particularly cherished event, or learned a new Japanese word. Sleep will help these unique experiences stick with you.

Not only may sleep help your memory, but lack of sleep may also hurt your health. A 2010 study from Biological Psychiatry found that chronic insomnia may lead to loss of brain volume. Researchers used fMRI scans to examine the brains of 37 human subjects with and without chronic insomnia. Insomniacs had a smaller volumes of gray matter in three brain areas—and the more serious the insomnia, the greater the loss of volume. And a preliminary 2012 study from the Washington University School of Medicine found that poor sleep patterns may be linked to brain plaques found in people with Alzheimer's.

Several studies make an excellent case for getting a good night's sleep whenever you can. But remember that although sleep may be beneficial, it's only a part of the puzzle. Apart from nighttime memory consolidation, you can also work on improving your memory abilities by working up a sweat studying Japanese in Cooori.