Does Extra Sleep Make You Smarter?

A typical adult spends one third of their life asleep. I’m sure you and I can agree that a good night’s rest is vital to our wellbeing, but there is actually very little scientific consensus on why we need sleep.

A recent study conducted at University of California, Berkeley observed 44 healthy young adults and subjected them to multiple memorizing tasks. Half of the group was given a 90-minute nap while the other half stayed awake. Those that napped performed significantly higher than those who did not. Additionally, the nappers had an apparent improved capability for learning.




The researchers at UC Berkeley discovered that spurts of sleep spindles (fast pulses of electricity generated during non-REM sleep) might be networking across the brain to make way for leaning. Because this process is most likely to occur during Stage 2 of NREM sleep, those who sleep less than seven hours are short changing themselves, having fewer spindles and a reduced ability to learn.

The results of the study indicate that sleep is essential not only after learning, in order to consolidate the material that has been memorized, but also before learning so we can retain new information the following day.
 Do you feel a difference the next day when you don’t get your full eight hours?