Lengthy Nap Key to Learning and Memory in Early Life

Lengthy Nap Key to Learning and Memory in Early Life

A lengthy nap is important to have good memory. As per researchers from the University of Sheffield, the time just before going to bed is the best time to learn.

The researchers also suggested that reading at bedtime is also important. In fact, the researchers believe that sleep is most important in early years than at any other ages. Majority of the time of babies is spent sleeping, but then also the researchers said that not much is known about the role of sleep in the first year of life.

An experiment was conducted in which 216 babies were involved aged up to 12 months. The researchers taught babies three new tasks involving playing with hand puppets. It was found that babies were unable to remember new tasks if they do not have good amount of sleep after completing the task.

Lead researcher Dr Jane Herbert from the department of psychology at the University of Sheffield said that half of the babies slept within four hours of learning and the remaining either had no sleep or they had a nap for less than 30 minutes. On the next day, the babies were encouraged to remember the tasks they have been taught.

As per Dr. Herbert, children who sleep after learning learn well and those who do not sleep do not learn well. The study suggested that babies process and preserve memories while they take naps throughout the day.

Study author Sabine Seehagen, a child and adolescent psychology researcher with Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, affirmed that sleeping after learning helps children to retain memory for a longer period of time.

As far as the case of adults is concerned, nap does not act as a memory aid. "There are many studies in the literature showing the benefit of naps for adults, but adults do not need to nap to retain new memories", said Rebecca Gomez, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona.

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