Health experts continuously stress the importance of sleep. Adults and children need the appropriate amount of sleep in order to function for day-to-day tasks. Additionally, researchers have found if you miss even two hours of sleep it can be detrimental to your memory.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania observed how mice completed a memory task, once they were stopped from sleeping.

According to Professor Ted Abel of the University of Pennsylvania, it is critical for the brain to remember and consolidate what has happened during the course of the day. If an individual loses as little as two hours of sleep, it prevents the brain from laying down strong memories.

The mice used for the study were kept awake for various amounts of time in order to determine how much sleep has to be lost in order for the brain to be impaired.

Professor Abel said in a conference, "What we found is that when we deprived animals of sleep, that impaired storage of memories and most importantly we found out that a very short period of time would block memory consolidation, it was as short as three hours, which for mice is something like 20 percent of their sleep over 24 hours."

The study revealed that in order for the brain to consolidate information into memories, the body must receive an adequate amount of sleep.

According to Neil Stanley, one of Britain's leading sleep experts, allocating the brain downtime gives the brain the opportunity to do what it is too busy to do during the course of the day.

Additionally Professor Abel, points out that if the information is lost due to a lack of sleep it is gone forever.

In order to give your brain the necessary time it needs to consolidate memories, adults should receive between seven to nine hours of sleep, teens between eight and nine hours of sleep and children between 10-11 hours of sleep.

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