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BOSTON, U.S.A., June 23, 2003: Getting an hour’s sleep during the day may be as beneficial as a whole night in bed, according to scientists. But the “power-nap” only works if the sleep is of the right quality, say the experts from Harvard University. Experts also add that a full night’s sleep is still necessary for many vital body functions, even though a short sleep may boost learning and memory. The Harvard research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, compared the learning and memory skills of two groups of people during a single day, and again the following morning. One group was told not to sleep at all during the day, and, as expected, their performance tailed off into the afternoon and evening. The other group was allowed to have an hour or 90 minutes nap at 2 p.m. The researchers were looking for two different sleep phases — slow wave sleep, and rapid eye movement, which is normally associated with dreaming. Those whose sleep involved both phases fared significantly better than those who had no sleep when given a learning test later in the day.

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