How a nap really can boost your brain power

IT’S a common response when we’re faced with a ticklish problem – ‘I’ll sleep on it’.

But researchers found that the old adage really does work – as participants in a study were better at solving a problem after having 40 winks.

In the study at the University of Bristol, 16 people were presented with a word recognition task on a laptop.

They were shown a word on the screen that appeared too briefly for the human mind to register – just 50 milliseconds – followed by a second word flashed up they needed to recognise. In some instances, the two words would be associ- ated. Half the group then had a 90-minute nap before they all returned to the task.

The researchers used EEG devices to measure the change in participants’ brain activity throughout and found that the task was processed much more quickly in subjects who had a nap. This was particularly true in those instances where the words were linked.

The study suggests that information acquired during wakefulness may potentially be processed in some deeper, qualitative way during sleep.

Researcher Dr Liz Coulthard said the findings showed our minds were able to work on cues presented ‘beneath our conscious awareness’.

‘Beneath our consciousness’