Naps may boost learning

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36715313/ns/health-behavior/

By Robin Nixon
updated 1:40 p.m. ET, Thurs., April 22, 2010

Scientists have long wondered why we sleep and why we dream. A new study provides evidence for some long-held notions that sleep and dreams boost learning and help us to make sense of the real world. Even naps can help, the researchers found.

Test subjects who dreamt about a challenging task performed it better than those who didn't have such dreams.

This newfound link between dreaming and learning gives insight into why humans bother to sleep at all. The study is thought to be the first to show "the relationship between dreaming and function in the outside world," said senior researcher Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School.

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Previous research has shown that sleep benefits the immune and endocrine systems, but it hasn't been clear that sleep per se is necessary. Resting quietly may be enough to meet these needs, Stickgold told LiveScience.

Sleep, however, might affect the brain in a way that no other state can equal, suggests the study published in the most recent issue of the journal Current Biology. The effect is likely critical for learning and making sense of life skills worth sleeping for, scientists think.

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Those who reported dreaming about the maze significantly improved their performance. They did better than people who had slept, but did not dream. And better than those who stayed awake rehearsing the task in their minds. Specifically, the dreamers bettered their performance more than six times the improvements of all other participants.


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