Once again scientists have proved that society is damaging our mental health. Sleeping for a short period during the day help the brain to retain new information, and ultimately for you to learn new things. However, when workers feel tired, managers expect them to carry on working and not make any mistakes either. But this goes against nature.
Just 15 minutes sleep is often enough to recharge the brain and boost mental performance. The advice to “sleep on it” with reference to trying to solve a complex problem really is sound advice, as while sleeping you brain can recover and work more efficiently as a result.
The scientists at University of California at Berkeley compared the brain to an email inbox. As the day passes your brain becomes clogged up with new information that cannot be processed and slows down your ability to focus on the task at hand. By having a sleep, you reset the inbox, sort out all the junk and make space for new information that can then be processed.
“Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap” said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of these studies.
Sleep is also essential to maintain a healthy body. It is while sleeping that we recover from exercise, repair muscle tissue and grow stronger. Many athletes and bodybuilder add extra sleep into their daily routines to help improve their performance. Also past research has shown that people that do not get enough sleep are more likely to become overweight, and it is not just because of people snacking more when tired. Also lack of sleep causes the arteries to harden, which leads to serious health problems. Scientists are also hopeful that understanding the sleeping process and brain learning and memory function may help to combat dementia and Alzheimer’s in the future.
So, for the sake of your health, your weight, your fitness and your cognitive development, take a nap this afternoon.
- Source: An afternoon nap markedly boosts the brain’s learning capacity, By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations