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Rediff.com  » News » Napping boosts memory: Study

Napping boosts memory: Study

Source: ANI
September 22, 2006 17:48 IST
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Bosses have just lost the reason to reprimand employees who catch those much needed 40 winks while on the job, for  as it turns out, a little nap at work can help workers boost their memory.

And, if bosses think that this is just another ploy by their employees, well they better think again for workers now have scientific proof to back up their need for sleep.

According to the New Scientist, a research carried out by boffins from the City University of New York in the US has  found that napping boosts memory, making it easier to recall important facts, reports the Daily Mail.

The study lead by Dr Matthew Tucker, said that though 'power napping' was  thought to be "counterproductive in  environments requiring mental acuity and substantial memory capacity", the results had shown otherwise.

As a part of the experiment, volunteers were asked to memorise pairs of words, such as 'clock' and 'hands'.

While half of the volunteers were allowed to nap for up to an hour, with the average time spent asleep being 47  minutes, the other half relaxed by reading magazines and watching films. 

Six hours later when both sets of volunteers were re-tested on the memory and mirror games, the researchers found that those who had a short nap were able to recall important facts much better. 

So much better in fact, that the scientists found that those who napped remembered 15 per cent more word pairs. 

The study appears in the current week's New Scientist.

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Source: ANI