Napping Helps Protect Memory
A quick nap is the best way to remember a poem or a recently learned theory, according to a study by a group of researchers at the University of Lübeck in Germany.
According to the several tests conducted by the researchers, the human brain is more likely to better resist the action of those factors which may erase or alter memories acquired during sleep than when the person is awake. German researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Starting from the idea that sleep has no influence on memory, Bjorn Rasch and three colleagues wanted to verify this principle by means of an experiment. They asked 24 volunteers to memorize 15 sentences which were illustrated by pictures of animals and everyday objects. After 40 minutes, half of the volunteers, who were awake during this period were asked to memorize a different set of postcards. The other 12 volunteers, meanwhile, took a short nap before being shown the second set of postcards.
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The two groups of volunteers were tested in relation to their ability to remember the first series of postcards. To the surprise of researchers, volunteers who took a nap had much higher scores, remembering, on average, 85 percent of the first picture. The volunteers who did not sleep between the two trial phases retained 60 percent of the patterns.
According to German researchers, the beneficial effect of naps on memory consolidation process could have interesting implications in intensive teaching, such as learning foreign languages.
This discovery could also have great benefits for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, a condition encountered by those who have gone through very extreme situations (serious accidents, assaults, attacks, etc.), helping them to reconfigure their memories.
