Sleeping on the job improves memory

Posted by Ricki Sharpe on March 28, 2008
Filed Under Cognitive, Work Behaviour

We all know people who sleep on the job. Now they can say it actually improves their mental performance, if they get caught. According to a new study, taking a mere six minute power nap is enough to replenish a person’s memory abilities. In fact, this brief nap can have the same effect as night time sleep on memory.

Dr Olaf Lahl at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, who led the research, believes it is the process of nodding off â€“ when recent events are replayed in the mind â€“ that is beneficial, rather than the sleep itself.

He asked students to memorise a list of words and tested their ability to recall them after an hour of playing the card game Solitaire. Some of the volunteers were allowed a five-minute catnap at the start of the experiment, the rest were asked to stay wide awake.

The students who took a quick sleep remembered significantly more words than those who didn’t.

The researchers said this was the first time that a very brief sleep has been shown to improve memory.

While not certain exactly how this ultra-short period of sleep enhances processing of word lists, nonsense syllables and other memory tasks by the brain, the researchers suggest that the mere onset of sleep may initiate active processes of consolidation that remain effective even if the person wakes up soon afterwards.

“It seems much more is happening during the initialisation of sleep than we thought,” said Dr Lahl.

“Maybe much of sleep’s functional aspects are accomplished at its very beginning,” he said.

Studies such as Dr Lahl’s suggest it is this short period of thought marshalling that is crucial for good recall.