![]() In addition, when memories reactivate, events such as sleep spindles and slows the oscillations that take place in the cerebral cortex (the outermost layer of the brain). Long before this study, a 2006 report in Current Biology also suggested that sleep-dependent memory consolidation is a hippocampus-mediated process. The researchers found that those who took a nap retained substantially more word pairs than the other group, which shows that a concentrated period of learning followed by a short nap can boost memory performance. Researchers tasked participants to learn single words and word pairs, and afterward, had half of them take a nap while the other half watched a DVD. In other words, the brain essentially replays your memories, or a “movie” of your day, Spencer adds.Īccording to a 2015 study published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, naps have a beneficial impact on hippocampus-dependent memories. During sleep, brain activity in the hippocampus matches the patterns of activity from when you were awake and learned it, says Spencer. When we learn something, it goes into the hippocampus, the region of the brain that is primarily associated with memory. This strengthens the connections between neurons holding on to that memory, says Mednick. Memory consolidation during sleep might occur because memory-related brain areas reactivate memories when you’re asleep. Researchers have also observed napping benefits from early childhood to late adulthood, showing naps benefit all ages. “We see nap benefits on various forms of learning, from learning of simple word pairs, to motor learning, to emotional learning,” Spencer adds. Spencer, professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. ![]() Memory tasks are perhaps the strongest evidence of naps’ benefits on cognition, says Rebecca M. resulted in better cognitive performance. Moreover, taking naps earlier in the day - before 1 p.m. In general, naps benefit everything that nighttime sleep helps, including emotional regulation, attention, alertness, motor function and memory, Mednick adds.Ī 2021 systematic review, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that a short, daytime nap improved cognitive performance in terms of alertness, executive function and memory for at least two hours after the nap. Naps of different durations, taken at different times of the day, produce varying effects, says Sara Mednick, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine.
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