Sleep Well - 6 Facts about sleeping

We often hear how sleep affects ourselves. When we lack sleep we usually tend to have a bad day. But is sleep so important? Does it really affects our learning? and if so, to what extend? What about a Spanish siesta in the afternoon?

Ok. Here you are 6 facts about sleep that might surprise you:

Did you know that...

1. taking a daily nap actually increases verbal and motor skills?
   Several studies have proven that subjects that take a 30-90 mins afternoon effectively improves their motor, verbal and visual skills. For motor skills the retention does not seem to last as much as visual ones, which greatly benefits of this practice.
2. research studies shows sleep actually increases Memory Retention?
   Both attention, focus and memory are affected by lack of sleep.
3. the brain get rid off toxins during sleep? (so sleep also plays a "cleaning" role)
   Yes. Brain cells temporarily shrink while you are sleeping, leaving more room for fluids to pass by which cleanse your brain removing the toxic wastes.
4. too much sleep can be also harmful?
   According to a study, sleeping too little is not good. The brain get rid of toxins during while sleeping, but too much sleep apparently is not so good for the heart and may increase the risk of coronary diseases, for example.
5. Night workers are more prone to accidents that daily ones?
   Apparently night workers are more prone to accidents due to sleep deprivation. This might be related not only attention decay, but also to poor performance skills due to poor memory consolidation and poor working memory.
6. Studies show a strong correlation between learning performance boost and sleep. This is specially true when a period of sleep followed the training or studying session.

Tips

Same tips to take most of your sleep for learning better:

• Take a siesta. An afternoon nap of about 30-60 minutes could be very beneficial for your memory. 
• Also, don't sleep too much, as it can be harmful. Aiming to 7 - 9 hours sleep everyday seems to be a good average. 
• Try to study or memorize before going to sleep. This might improve your memory retention. 
• Try to improve my sleep! 

References

• Sleep and Memory [Wikipedia]
• Brain may flush out toxins during sleep [NIH]
• Sleeping allows the brain to cleanse itself - but too much is harmful [Scientific American]
• The Role of Sleep in Learning, Memory and Health [Therapeutic Literacy] 
• How to Sleep Better [HELPGUIDE.org] 

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