Sleep to Remember

By Matthew Walker

The brain needs sleep before and after learning new things, regardless of the type of memory. Naps can help, but caffeine isn't an effective substitute

Biology Psychology

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July-August 2006

Volume 94, Number 4
Page 326

DOI: 10.1511/2006.60.326

Remember being a student? Faced with a big test the next day, you have to learn something in a hurry—the General Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, maybe, or two-and-a-half octaves of a difficult scale on the clarinet. After long hours of practice you notice it's the middle of the night. You haven't quite mastered the task. Should you forgo sleep for more practice?

Photograph courtesy of NASA.

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