Health

Nap without guilt
by Magdalena Rosova

Short nap during a day disrupts memory-making, as new research suggests. But on the other hand it can boost a sophisticated kind of memory that helps us to be creative.

Good sleep is very rare nowadays. It is recommended to sleep seven to eight hours a night. Luck of sleep causes many accidents, such as car crashes. Furthermore it can make us vulnerable to heart disease, diabetes and many other illnesses.

More common than sleeping not at all is fragmented sleep – awakening that aging brings.

Scientist are focusing more on the quality of sleep, not on sleep duration. They found out that “slow-wave sleep” is very important. It is a period of very deep sleep that comes before REM sleep or dreaming time.

Dr. William Fishbein, a cognitive neuroscientist at the City University of New York, thinks that slow-wave sleep has an important role eve in a nap. Therefore with a graduate student Hiuyan Lau he has done a test of documenting relational memory during a nap.

They taught 20 students few Chinese words with two characters and then half the students took a nap, while being monitored. After that they took a test, which nappers did much better, automatically learning that short words they have memorized earlier meant the same thing, for example – female. So they were more likely to choose a word containing that character meant “princess.”

The students took 90- minute nap, but even a 12-minute nap can boost our memory.

However, no one can say what is the minimum sleep needed for good memory. It vary from person to person.

related story: http://www.nbcchicago.com/health/tips_info/GO-AHEAD-TAKE-A-NAP.html

by Magdalena Rosova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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edited by Beata Biskova

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posted by Blog TechSource @ 5:04 AM