More Evidence that Naps Help Memory

I have mentioned before the value of naps for improving the formation of memories. Another recent student confirms this conclusion. Matthew Walker and colleagues an the University of California at Berkeley divided 39 young adults into two groups. At noon, all the participants took part in a memory exercise that required them to remember faces and link them with names. Then the researchers took part in another memory exercise at 6 p.m., after 20 had napped for 100 minutes during the break.

Those who remained awake performed about 10 percent worse on the tests than those who napped, Walker said. Students take note: 10% can be the difference between an A and a B.

Source: Walker, Mathew. 2010. Current Models of Mechanisms of Sleep-Dependent Memory Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, San Diego, Feb. 21.