Here's another reason why you should nap more

We already know they can help the body recover after a bad night's sleep, and now scientists have found another reason why naps are wonderful: they are good for memory.

That's according to work carried out by graduate student Sara Studte, which found power naps helped students retain information.

In the research, published in the journal of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 41 students were taught 90 words and 120 unrelated word pairs (such as "milk taxi"). After learning the information half the students were allowed to take a power nap and the other half watched a DVD before they were tested again. The study found the students who napped were much better at remembering the words.

So what does this mean? "A short nap at the office or in school is enough to significantly improve learning success. Wherever people are in a learning environment, we should think seriously about the positive effects of sleep," said Professor Axel Mecklinger, who supervised the study. "Even a short sleep lasting 45 to 60 minutes produces a five-fold improvement in information retrieval from memory."

More: If you didn’t sleep well last night, this might help