During the study, rodents were given doses of melatonin, evaluating their memory function the following day.
The study was conducted at the Open University of Catalonia and Pompeu Fabra University.
The participants were instructed to stay in for a night at a sleep laboratory.
The study was conducted by a team of Swiss researchers at the Université de Genève.
The study was published in Translational Sports Medicine.
In their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Child Development, researchers initiated experiments on 96 children at nine months old.
Such changes in the brain may even also be therapeutic, according to the study published in Cortex.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, highlights continual learning during sleep, crucial in inhibiting the loss of old memories.
The internationally-based coalition of researchers examined more than 19,000 participants as part of the Health and Retirement Study.
The findings appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Science.