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Sleep-dependent learning: a nap is as good as a night

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 697–698 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The learning of perceptual skills has been shown in some cases to depend on the plasticity of the visual cortex1 and to require post-training nocturnal sleep2. We now report that sleep-dependent learning of a texture discrimination task can be accomplished in humans by brief (60– 90 min) naps containing both slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This nap-dependent learning closely resembled that previously reported for an 8-h night of sleep in terms of magnitude, sleep-stage dependency and retinotopic specificity, and it was additive to subsequent sleep-dependent improvement, such that performance over 24 h showed as much learning as is normally seen after twice that length of time. Thus, from the perspective of behavioral improvement, a nap is as good as a night of sleep for learning on this perceptual task.

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Figure 1: Same-day improvement in no-nap, 60-min nap and 90-min nap groups, with and without REM and SWS.
Figure 2: Improvement for nap and no-nap groups.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (MH 48832, DA 11744 and NS 26985) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (83-0320).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Sara Mednick & Ken Nakayama

  2. Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert Stickgold

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  1. Sara Mednick
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  2. Ken Nakayama
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  3. Robert Stickgold
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Correspondence to Sara Mednick.

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Mednick, S., Nakayama, K. & Stickgold, R. Sleep-dependent learning: a nap is as good as a night. Nat Neurosci 6, 697–698 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1078

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