Any of us who have ever been in school remember that stressed-out ”I MUST REMEMBER THIS” feeling. Now I am comforted to know that I may have been doing myself some good by triggering those thoughts. A group of German scientists recently published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that certain activations in your brain (theta waves) actually do precede better recall. See the  Neurophilosophy blog for study design and details. But don’t stay up too late reading it — adequate, uninterrupted sleep is still crucial in laying down memories.