Taking a short nap does more than help you catch up on sleep.
A new study has found that a short nap during the day can improve memory function, according to the website Dailylife.com.au.
Researchers from Saarland University in Germany have stated that taking a daytime nap will actually help your brain hold on to all that it has learned, according to the NY Daily News.
“A short nap at the office or in school is enough to significantly improve learning success. Wherever people are in a learning environment, we should think seriously about the positive effects of sleep,” stated Professor Axel Mecklinger, who supervised the study, in a release.
He added, “Even a short sleep lasting 45 to 60 minutes produces a five-fold improvement in information retrieval from memory.”
For the recent study, participants were reportedly told to memorize 90 words and 120 unconnected phrases, such as “milk taxi.” A portion of the participants then napped while others watched a DVD.
When they were tested again, those who had taken a nap reportedly remembered more words, compared to those who didn’t get to sleep.
Researchers studied the hippocampus region of the brain, the area where the brain converts short-term memories into long-term ones, according to the Tech Times. Researchers reportedly looked for “sleep spindles,” which are bursts of quick vibrations in the brain, as the more sleep spindles were shown, the stronger a person’s memory is.
“We suspect that certain types of memory content, particularly information that was previously tagged, is preferentially consolidated during this type of brain activity,” stated Mecklinger.
A shocking 50 percent of Americans reportedly don’t get enough sleep, according to previous studies. However, a 2011 study reportedly showed that only 6 percent of businesses in the U.S. provided nap rooms for their employees.
This means that only a small percentage of businesses are emphasizing the importance of sleep and its link to work performance. Naps aren’t taken seriously, evident from the response of social media users to this recent study, but they just might make you the star employee you want to be at work.
Conan: Study sez short daytime nap can improve ur memory. Ull always remember the moment ur boss wakes u up & says “Hey sleepy you’re fired”
— Andrew Malcolm (@AHMalcolm) March 25, 2015
