Can an afternoon nap improve adolescents’ learning without hurting morning performance?

Details

Daytime naps have been linked to better memory encoding and consolidation, but it was unclear how a daily nap schedule affects learning throughout the day or whether its effects differ between well-rested and sleep-restricted people.

Researchers compared memory in 112 adolescents during two simulated school weeks with daily sleep opportunities of either 8 or 6.5 hours. Sleep was either continuous at night or split between nighttime sleep and a 90-minute afternoon nap, creating four experimental groups: 8-hour continuous, 8-hour split, 6.5-hour continuous and 6.5-hour split. Declarative memory was assessed using picture encoding and an educationally realistic factual knowledge task.

Splitting sleep significantly improved afternoon picture encoding and factual knowledge at both sleep durations. It also significantly reduced slow-wave energy during nighttime sleep, suggesting lower homeostatic sleep pressure during the day. Morning performance was not negatively affected by the split schedule, despite reduced nighttime sleep.

The findings suggest that naps could be incorporated into a daily sleep schedule that provides sufficient sleep and benefits learning.