Andrew Huberman· PhD
Naps enhance the rate and depth of learning.
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Naps enhance the rate and depth of learning.
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Newly learned motor sequences (movements) are replayed during sleep & during brief daytime naps (20-60min).
when we brought the people who had learned in the morning and tested in the evening without sleep they had retained that memory they were no worse they were just no better but in the people who had slept what was stunning was that they had improved their performance output speed by 20% and they'd improved their accuracy by almost 37%
in other words it wasn't time that you needed to produce Perfection it was time with sleep in other words you've often heard the statement practice makes perfect but we violated that edict it wasn't practice that makes perfect it's practice with a night of sleep that makes or leads to perfection in other words after learning your brain continues to improve in the absence of any further practice
the sleep that can let's say enhance although I think what we're really talking about here that consolidates motor learning yeah can arrive the night after meaning one finishes let's say learning at I don't know 11:00 a.m. and then they sleep later that night or the following night and in both instances that sleep can enhance or let's say consolidate the motor learning that occurred
is it really nighttime or is it specifically sleep so now we did a nap study with motor skill learning we repeated that and sure enough even though that time period was across the day not during night n they showed this beautiful motor skill benefit if they napped versus if they did not
yes those sleep spindles the more of them that you had in the nap the better your motor skill learning was
but with motor memories it is enhancement it's that when you're awake across the day you don't get any worse which is what happens with fact textbook memory you hold that performance but then sleep comes in and it boosts you even further you get a nice benefit without doing anything further