According to a new study, getting shut-eye before you learn is important, because it will help you store knowledge learned earlier.
Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues recruited 27 women and 17 men to come to the sleep lab. First, the volunteers had to memorize 100 names and faces. Then they were tested for how well they recalled the face-name matches.
Next, the researchers tucked half of the volunteers in for a nap between 2 pm and 3:40 pm. The other group of participants stayed awake and did daily activities. At 6 pm, both groups memorized another set of 100 faces and names and were tested on their memory.
The first major finding, Walker said, was that learning ability degrades as the day wears on. Volunteers who didn't nap did about 12 percent worse on the evening test than they did on the morning test. Napping test-takers did about 10 percent better on the evening test than they did on the morning test.
"It's almost like clearing out your informational inbox of your e-mail so you can start to receive new e-mails," Walker said. "It's not simply enough to sleep after learning, it turns out you also need to sleep before learning."
