Northwestern University researchers are validating procrasti-nappers everywhere - they say a 90-minute nap can actually help in learning a new skill.
At least when that skill is remembering a musical tune.
Participants in the study, published this week in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience, learned two different musical sequences on a computer screen while watching moving circles that went along with them, similar to video games such as Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution.
After practicing for 25 minutes, the participants took a 90-minute nap. The researchers monitored the participants' brain activity, and when they entered the "slow wave sleep stage" - a period of deep sleep with occasional intervening periods of REM sleep - the psychologists played one of the two sequences quietly.
Before nap time, the participants performed equally on both sequences. The researchers purposely made the sequences difficult so practice would become important, and the subjects could potentially show improvement. When they woke up, participants were re-tested and performed better on the sequence that had been played during their nap.
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The researchers concluded the participants' exposure to musical cues played during their slow wave sleep stage helped them make fewer errors when re-tested.
Similar research has been conducted in the past, said James Antony, the lead author of the study. But this finding is new because it relates to perfecting a skill, rather than remembering learned information, he said.
