Health & Fitness

Calling all workaholics and night owls: There is mounting evidence that dreaming and power naps are good for brain health and, more specifically, memory recall. This may come as good news for chronically sleep-deprived teens and college students gearing up for the new school year.

Several new studies have emerged in recent months suggesting naps boost information retention and learning.

Earlier this year, a study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, indicated that rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep may enhance creativity and problem-solving. Participants were given various puzzles in which they had to come up with a word that links three other seemingly unrelated words. They were then instructed to take a nap, after which they completed more puzzles. Those who experienced REM sleep were able to solve 40 percent more puzzles than they had before their naps, while those who rested without falling asleep or didn’t experience REM did slightly worse post-nap.

According to the paper’s lead author, this improvement suggests that during this sleep phase, information is moved from the hippocampus region of the brain – an area responsible for the formation of new memories – to the neocortex, which holds older memories and experiences. Once the information is in the neocortex, the brain is able to associate the new information with older information, which can result in increased ability to solve problems and develop new ideas.

Another study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, further supports the link between napping and improved ability to learn and complete tasks. The study, announced in February, found that those who napped for 90 minutes between learning sessions improved their scores, while those who didn’t nap had worse scores.

High schoolers and college students should also take note: The same research team at Berkeley previously found that pulling an all-nighter decreases the ability to retain new information by nearly 40 percent, due to a shutdown of brain regions during sleep deprivation.

The recent movie “Inception” raises questions about dreams and where they come from, but real-life science suggests that dreams may actually be the brain’s way of communicating to us that it is synthesizing information we’ve learned. In a study published in the journal Current Biology in April, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston asked 99 college students to undergo a computer exercise where they had to navigate a complex 3-D maze as quickly as possible. Afterward, half of the participants took a 90-minute nap, while the others remained awake and were asked to rehearse the maze in their heads.

Five hours later, the students performed the maze task again. The nappers who reported dreaming about the maze did significantly better than both their counterparts – the non-nappers and nappers who did not dream about the maze. According to the researchers, this suggests that while dreaming, the brain is processing information at a higher level and looking to find deeply stored associations for the new memories.

A 20-minute power nap is often enough to refresh your brain and body; this length is usually enough to leave me feeling rejuvenated without making an impact on my schedule.

If your calendar allows, naps between 60 and 90 minutes long have been shown to improve memory retention, as the above studies demonstrate. Naps of this length might be particularly helpful for students cramming for a test. However, keep in mind that anything longer than 90 minutes may affect your ability to sleep at night.

Mind your health,

Dr. Keith Black