Siesta time!

Call it a siesta a nanna nap or a power snooze an afternoon nap is good for you!

New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour’s nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Conversely, the more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish our minds become.

The hippocampus is a part of the brain that appears to be one of the most important structures for normal memory function. It is vital for making new memories. It is involved in learning new tasks. It continues to be busy during sleep when the information that you have learned during the day is altered, re-structured and strengthened. Sleep allows your brain to store this strengthened information in your memory for future use.

In the recent UC Berkeley sleep study, 39 healthy young adults were divided into two groups: nap and no-nap. At noon, all the participants were subjected to a rigorous learning task intended to tax the hippocampus, a region of the brain that helps store fact-based memories. Both groups performed at comparable levels.

At 2 p.m., the nap group took a 90-minute siesta while the no-nap group stayed awake. Later that day, at 6 p.m., participants performed a new round of learning exercises. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning. In contrast, those who napped did markedly better and actually improved in their capacity to learn.

so next time your body needs a nap - take it ... you'll be smarter for it!