Health Discoveries in General Health News
Mid-day nap bolsters learning capacity by refreshing short-term memory bank
April 20, 2010
A mid-day nap can sharpen the brain and improve learning ability, a University of California at Berkeley study has found.
The same research team previously found that pulling "all-nighters" to cram for exams shuts down certain brain regions because of sleep deprivation and lowers the ability to learn new facts by as much as 40 percent.
"Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap," said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.
The latest study divided 39 young adults into two groups with one group taking a 90-minute nap in the middle of the day. Both groups were tested early in the day and performed comparably. But the group that napped did significantly better on learning exercises that both groups performed later in the day, reinforcing the research team's belief that sleep can clear the brain's short-term memory storage to make room for new facts.
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the research arm of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, has a clinical trial under way focusing on ways to treat "obstructive" sleep apnea, a complex sleep disorder in which a blockage occurs in the airway during sleep.
The same research team previously found that pulling "all-nighters" to cram for exams shuts down certain brain regions because of sleep deprivation and lowers the ability to learn new facts by as much as 40 percent.
"Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap," said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.
The latest study divided 39 young adults into two groups with one group taking a 90-minute nap in the middle of the day. Both groups were tested early in the day and performed comparably. But the group that napped did significantly better on learning exercises that both groups performed later in the day, reinforcing the research team's belief that sleep can clear the brain's short-term memory storage to make room for new facts.
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the research arm of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, has a clinical trial under way focusing on ways to treat "obstructive" sleep apnea, a complex sleep disorder in which a blockage occurs in the airway during sleep.