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Splitting sleep between the night and a daytime nap reduces homeostatic sleep pressure and enhances long-term memory.


ABSTRACT: Daytime naps have been linked with enhanced memory encoding and consolidation. It remains unclear how a daily napping schedule impacts learning throughout the day, and whether these effects are the same for well-rested and sleep restricted individuals. We compared memory in 112 adolescents who underwent two simulated school weeks containing 8 or 6.5 h sleep opportunities each day. Sleep episodes were nocturnal or split between nocturnal sleep and a 90-min afternoon nap, creating four experimental groups: 8 h-continuous, 8 h-split, 6.5 h-continuous and 6.5 h-split. Declarative memory was assessed with picture encoding and an educationally realistic factual knowledge task. Splitting sleep significantly enhanced afternoon picture encoding and factual knowledge under both 6.5 h and 8 h durations. Splitting sleep also significantly reduced slow-wave energy during nocturnal sleep, suggesting lower homeostatic sleep pressure during the day. There was no negative impact of the split sleep schedule on morning performance, despite a reduction in nocturnal sleep. These findings suggest that naps could be incorporated into a daily sleep schedule that provides sufficient sleep and benefits learning.

SUBMITTER: Cousins JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7935993 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Splitting sleep between the night and a daytime nap reduces homeostatic sleep pressure and enhances long-term memory.

Cousins James N JN   Leong Ruth L F RLF   Jamaluddin S Azrin SA   Ng Alyssa S C ASC   Ong Ju Lynn JL   Chee Michael W L MWL  

Scientific reports 20210305 1


Daytime naps have been linked with enhanced memory encoding and consolidation. It remains unclear how a daily napping schedule impacts learning throughout the day, and whether these effects are the same for well-rested and sleep restricted individuals. We compared memory in 112 adolescents who underwent two simulated school weeks containing 8 or 6.5 h sleep opportunities each day. Sleep episodes were nocturnal or split between nocturnal sleep and a 90-min afternoon nap, creating four experimenta  ...[more]

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