A New research has found that people who sleep after processing and storing a memory, and carry out their objective, are much better than people who attempt to carry out their plan before sleeping.

Researchers Michael Scullin and his adviser Mark McDaniel from Washington University-St. have proved that sleep improves the capability to remember to do something, the process known as prospective memory.

Prospective memory comprises things such as remembering to take a medicine, bringing home ice cream for a birthday party or buying a Mother's Day card.

But the huge majority of sleep literature in psychology is dedicated to retrospective memory which includes things that have happened in the past.

This study is the first incursion into the association between prospective memory and sleep, the kind of memory which people put to work daily.

According to the researchers, the finding offers significant contributions for understanding the role played by sleep in cognition as well as memory.

These are the key results from a study published of the association between sleep and memory. The research was published online in Psychological Science.