Part 4/10:
The process of memory replay during sleep serves a vital function; it compresses the temporal experience of events into a format that the brain can store more effectively. What took seconds in real-time can be condensed to mere milliseconds during these neural replays.
This temporal compression is essential because it ensures that the signals arriving from the hippocampus trigger precise reactivation of pathways in the neocortex—the outer layer of the brain—strengthening those connections and paving the way for long-term memory consolidation.