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Daytime Naps Improve Memory

According to a study published in the recent issue of Sleep, brief 45 minute daytime naps improve memory performance. The study, conducted by Matthew A. Tucker, PhD, of the Center for Sleep and Cognition and the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, analyzed 33 participants.

Participants were divided into two groups, first group included 16 individuals who took a daytime nap, and the second group which was made up of 17 individuals who did not take a nap. All participants were subjected to declarative memory tasks. It was found that those who took a short daytime nap, had a better memory performance as compared to those individuals who did not take a nap.

“These results suggest that there is a threshold acquisition level that has to be obtained for sleep to optimally process the memory,” said Dr. Tucker. “The importance of this finding is that sleep may not indiscriminately process all information we acquire during wakefulness, only the information we learn well.”

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