Do you ever wish you took advantage of those naps as a little kid? Our lives now are extremely busy and exhausting; we are sleep deprived, and we can’t seem to find a minute to just relax. I know as a college student I am constantly trying to cram in just a 20 minute nap hoping to have more energy when I wake up, and according to new research, these afternoon naps I try and fit into my daily schedule actually are quite beneficial. A new study found “that young adults who slept for 90 minutes after lunch raised their learning power, [and] their memory apparently primed to absorb new facts,” reports Roni Caryn Rabin from The New York Times.
The study involved 39 young, healthy adults who were separated into two groups. They were all asked to learn 100 names and faces by noon, and then to learn a different set of names and faces by 6 p.m. Caryn reports, “20 of the volunteers who slept for 90 minutes between the two learning sessions improved their scores by 10 percent on average after sleeping; the scores of those who didn’t nap actually dropped by 10 percent.” Matthew P. Walker, lead investigator, said, “You need to sleep before learning, to prepare your brain, like a dry sponge, to absorb new information.”
If you are having trouble sleeping, find a doctor near you who can help.
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