Ransom Riggs
Naps Make You Smarter
by Ransom Riggs - February 22, 2010 - 7:40 AM

nappingI’m a napper. 20, 30 minutes a day — that’s all I need. But it banishes the post-lunch sleepies and makes me feel like someone’s reset the clock inside my brain — and now, thanks to researchers at Berkeley, we know that that’s really kind of what happens, on a neuro-cognitive level. According to an article about the study, “An hour’s nap in the afternoon can boost a person’s brain power and improve their memory … showing that short periods of sleep during the day can make it easier to function mentally.”

Scientists found that a Spanish-style siesta after lunch does more than just refresh the body and mind, it also makes it easier for the brain to store and retrieve items of short-term information needed for working or studying. The findings lend weight to the idea that sleep not only restores a person’s sense of well-being, but is essential if the brain is to take on additional information as part of the memory-forming process of learning.

It all happens in the hippocampus, which is a part of our brain which temporarily stores “fact-based memories.” “It’s as though the email inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact emails, you’re not going to receive any more mail. It’s just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder,” Dr Matthew Walker, a Berkeley psychologist said.

Even more fascinating, the study found that small children who are learning to construct words into sentences are unlikely to remember their lessons unless they sleep soon afterward.

What about you — how do naps affect your state of mind?

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Comments (20)

  1. finally – thank you! now to forward to my boss…

    posted by Nicole on 2-22-2010 at 7:46 am

  2. Well I tried few times to nap. But after I woke up (after an hour) I felt like someone just woke me up from a night sleep. Felt horrible, and tired.

    posted by David on 2-22-2010 at 8:38 am

  3. I love this! I feel like a superhero after an afternoon nap. Too bad these usually take place in my car as opposed to a comfy hammock…

    posted by Drew C on 2-22-2010 at 9:12 am

  4. I nap every day. That probably didn’t go over well at my last day job. But now that I get up at 5 every morning, it’s a necessity. I conk out at 2PM for an hour or two depending on how much noise the kids make after school.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 2-22-2010 at 9:16 am

  5. I love to take afternoon naps, but they usually end up being 3-4 hours long, which isn’t really practical except on lazy weekends. Even if I could find a comfortable sleeping place at work, I wouldn’t want to stay until 9 or 10 p.m.

    posted by bananacat on 2-22-2010 at 9:57 am

  6. I’d read somewhere that a typical sleep cycle is 45 minutes long. So taking approx 15 minutes to fall asleep/wake-up would make it about an hour. I know I always feel better when I sleep during my lunch hour… however, I do get hungry around 3pm!!

    posted by cuevami1 on 2-22-2010 at 10:19 am

  7. I make a 30 minute commute to and from work each day with my husband. He drives, I nap. It’s usually just a 15-20 minute catnap each way, but I’ve become dependent on it! I really feel the difference if I don’t get my little naps.

    posted by bre on 2-22-2010 at 1:27 pm

  8. As a college student, I love my naps just after lunch and just before my afternoon classes. It really does refresh me! I’m really going to miss napping when I become a teacher.

    posted by Kieran on 2-22-2010 at 1:36 pm

  9. I love my naps, but can only squeeze them in on the weekends. I sure do love to crawl upstairs with my trusty Snuggie, plop on the bed, and drift off to dreamland for an hour or two. I always wake up feeling refreshed, like a mini-vacation. Good to know it’s also helping my brain function!

    posted by FizzyGurrl on 2-22-2010 at 1:55 pm

  10. @David: Most power naps should be between 30-45 min.

    I LOVE my naps. My friends think I’m ridiculous, but I nap on the 1h15m commute to work via public transit, both ways! On the weekends I ususally get up about 9 or 10 and nap at about 3…it just helps me get through the day!

    posted by Shash on 2-22-2010 at 1:58 pm

  11. @Kieran

    Oh the naps still happen, they’re just later–and DEFINITELY more needed. :)

    I’m a teacher too, I get off at 2:30 and promptly go home and crash until 4 almost every day!

    posted by KerriD on 2-22-2010 at 2:18 pm

  12. I was raised to think that naps were, “lazy and sloth-esque.” However, I am proud to say, my daughter and I enjoy a good snooze on both days of the the weekends–I honestly cut out a lot of extra curricular activities on the weekend because that time is so important for her growth (4 years old) and my sanity. With my traumatic brain injury, I found naps were also essential to “reboot.” I am sending this article to my mom… :)

    posted by Helenann on 2-22-2010 at 3:09 pm

  13. I love my brain. When I need a nap I tell myself how long I need to be down and then wake up within a couple of minutes of the time I’ve set. What a gift. I’ve been able to ‘wait for the light’ while out shooting (photos)…solve sticky problems with a short snooze…relax after a stressful situation…and rebound for the long hours on big projects. People who don’t get nap-taking, just don’t get it. Their loss.

    posted by M. Forrest on 2-22-2010 at 4:01 pm

  14. I take a little nap between giving English lessons in the morning and afternoon. It keeps my mind stable enough not to lose it with the kids in the afternoon because they’re half asleep and not paying attention. Ka is a Wheel, do ya kennit?

    posted by Kate in Italy on 2-22-2010 at 5:19 pm

  15. I remember hearing about this in my psychology class last year. We called it “memory consolidation.” The class was right after lunch period, so there was one guy who always suggested we do some memory consolidation instead of quizzes and studying.

    reCaptcha: which immerses

    posted by Sillstaw on 2-22-2010 at 5:24 pm

  16. I’m a bear, I like to hibernate, unfortunately most days I don’t get the chance.

    I find that sometimes it works and it’s refreshing, but other times you just wind up groggy and confused for the rest of the day. Does that happen because I don’t nap regularly or does that happen when you just nap too long?

    posted by TheBear on 2-22-2010 at 6:09 pm

  17. I have always been one to take a nap. It helps me to feel better and focus more. To bad my boyfriend keeps telling there is no reason for any one to sleep in the daytime .

    posted by Kyle on 2-22-2010 at 8:04 pm

  18. I take naps around the same length of time as bananacat’s, and every time new inspiration comes to me like magic.
    I often owe these naps for some of my more eccentric ideas.

    recaptcha: discrete By

    posted by marcus on 2-22-2010 at 10:14 pm

  19. Sleeping in the first part of the day is ignorance, and in the middle of the day [good] character, and in the last part of the day stupidity.

    posted by Tetty Al Abdullah on 2-23-2010 at 3:26 am

  20. I bring a lunch to work everyday. At lunchtime, I drive to a nice, secluded place, eat my lunch, and then take a 20 to 30 minute nap. It has worked wonders, especially when I’m only getting about 5 hours of sleep each night.

    posted by Bruce on 2-23-2010 at 8:40 am

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