Preliminary research from the University of California – Berkley suggests that a midday nap readies the brain to remember and take in new information. Researchers took a group and at noon presented them with a task to link faces with names. At 6:00 p.m., after half of the group had a 90 minute nap, everyone was presented with a similar task. The group that did not have a nap had performance declines of 10%. The group that was allowed to nap did not show such a decline in performance.

Read the full post on Attention College Students – Naps May Improve Your Memory.

Did you know?
Better Sleep Month stresses the importance of sleep for overall good health. Did you know that a lack of sleep is linked to being overweight?

Steps to take
Get enough sleep at night to feel refreshed the next day. If you have insomnia for more than 3 weeks, see your doctor. Learn more from the National Sleep Foundation at sleepfoundation.org.

I often write about how important it is to your health to not only get sleep, but the right type of sleep. It is imperative that your body enter the REM stage of sleep to boost your immune system, repair your nervous system and release hormones. Your body will only reach REM sleep after it has sequentially gone through the four non-REM stages of sleep that precede it. If you find yourself waking up tired every morning, it could be because you are never reaching the REM stage of sleep and getting deep, relaxing restoration. The following are the generally accepted stages of sleep:

Read the full post on The Stages of Sleep.