Can a Midday Nap Make You Smarter?

See, boss, we weren't sleeping on company time, we were getting smarter on company time


Devote your lunch hour to a restful nap, and you may perform and learn better in the afternoon, a new study suggests.

Nappers performed better than non-nappers on a test, says study researcher Matthew Walker, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley. He presented his findings this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

''The brain's ability to learn information is not stable across the day," Walker tells WebMD. The area of the brain that stores memories may get ''clogged up'' as the day goes on, akin to a full email in-box on your computer, he says.

Napping at midday, when the brain's ability to learn may have deteriorated, may clear the brain's memory storage area and make room for new information, Walker says.

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