Okay, show of hands! Who’s a napper? My husband is a big fan of taking a quick 15-minute nap in the afternoon to recharge, but I’ve never been good at taking cat naps. My brain doesn’t shut off that quickly and for some reason, I always wake up from a nap with a stomachache. However, I know a lot of people who swear by a quick mid-day siesta to recharge their battery and brain power.

Researchers from Texas State University decided to look into positive effects of the afternoon nap. Last year, they did a study of 58 participants, ages 18-29 to study how taking a nap affects the brain’s problem-solving ability. Basically, they tested out that old “just sleep on it” adage and found that sleep does a brain some good. Specifically, they determined that when given a set of difficult problems both before and after a nap, the “sleep” test group had a much easier time solving them post-nap than the ones who stayed awake the whole time. This is likely all thanks to getting a few extra REM cycles in.

A new study suggests afternoon naps boost the brain’s problem-solving skills, with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – the dreaming stage of sleep, theoretically linked to storing memories and processing emotions – particularly important. Researchers from Texas State University tested analogical problem solving, where our brains solve problems using successful methods applied to similar problems in the past. They found nappers were better at these mental routes towards solutions.

“The current results indicate that when a problem seems unsolvable, the phrase ‘just sleep on it’ may carry some merit, especially if sleep includes REM,” write the researchers in their published paper. “This sleep stage may play a key role in putting past experiences to best use by establishing and strengthening associations that are not readily apparent in our waking lives.”

The study involved 58 participants, who were shown a series of problems followed by their solutions. Next, they were presented with another set of similar problems – with this second set, there were no solutions attached, but the puzzles could be tackled using the same mental processes as the first batch.

There was then a two-hour gap, during which 28 of the volunteers banked a 110-minute snooze, while the other 30 were asked to stay awake. The napping group had their REM time quantified using EEG headsets while they slept. After the break, the experiment continued by giving all participants a chance to look again at problems they had failed to solve from the second set.

Those who napped were found to be better at solving the problems that had stumped them the first time around, and the amount of REM sleep they had was associated with the likelihood of solving these problems. This is despite nappers and non-nappers scoring similarly in problem solving before the break.

Nappers were also better than the waking group at noticing the similarities between problems in the first and second sets.

“These results indicate that sleep improves the ability to solve target problems that could not be initially solved and suggest that REM sleep improves the use of analogical transfer by highlighting commonalities between source and target problems that were unnoticed before a nap,” write the researchers.

We can’t be sure there’s direct cause and effect here, but it’s a strong link. These findings also fit in with previous research showing sleep is associated with better creative problem solving skills, and better mental agility in a variety of areas.

As for the REM sleep factor, the researchers think that the way this sleep stage helps us connect new memories to old ones could be having benefits with these types of puzzles, where existing skills need to be recalled.

It might be a tough ask to get your boss to give you a 110-minute nap window in the day in order to boost your afternoon productivity – but this study shows we can become better problem solvers after a nap.

“REM sleep may be necessary to facilitate problem solving when it requires an active recombination of problem elements, as occurs during creative problem solving,” write the researchers.

[From Science Alert via Yahoo! News]

This study is cool and the results are really interesting. I’m fascinated by the ways that rapid eye movement helsp our brains function. I love their conclusion that REM sleep is an important part ”in putting past experiences to best use by establishing and strengthening associations that are not readily apparent in our waking lives.” That’s some “the real power was within you the whole time” energy right there. This makes perfect sense, though, since it doesn’t take an official study to know that when you don’t get enough sleep, you’re cranky, more forgetful, and have trouble concentrating (among other things). Score one point for the good sleepers and dedicated nap-takers!

Rapid eye movement has also been studied and used in non-sleeping techniques, too. EMDR therapy uses rapid eye movements to help treat PTSD sufferers. I recently read an article that talked about EMDR, and it mentioned that playing video games like Tetris that force your eyes to make that up-and-down, side-to-side motion are helpful to calm trauma victims. Like I said, I find these types of studies fascinating. If you’re like me and want to read more, you can read the full published study about napping here.

Photos credit: Katrin Bolovtsova, Kaboompics.com and Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels