Bump Up Your Learning Capacity with a Nap

Thomas Edison… Leonardo da Vinci… Albert Einstein… Eleanor Roosevelt… Winston Churchill… What do these famous folks have in common?

Yes, they were all brilliant. But they also knew the value of a good nap.

Edison, who was especially adept at napping, kept sleeping cots in both his summer and winter laboratories in New Jersey and Florida, where he developed over a thousand patented inventions in his lifetime.

Research shows: If you want to boost your brilliance, napping is a great place to start. A sleep study at the University of California Berkeley found that an hour's nap significantly increased learning performance among healthy young adults.

  • Two groups of participants––nap and no-nap––were subjected at the noon hour to a learning exercise involving fact-based memory. The groups performed at comparable levels. One group took a 60-minute nap at 2 p.m., while the other group stayed awake. When given another exercise at 6 p.m., those who napped did markedly better and improved their capacity to learn, reports Science Daily.
  • Mathew Walker, the lead investigator, said that fact-based memories are temporarily stored in the brain's hippocampus before being sent to the prefrontal cortex for long-term storage. When the hippocampus is full, nothing else can get in.
  • However, Stage 2 non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, or napping, refreshes the brain, sending the information from the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex. Humans spend about half of their night-time sleeping hours in this stage.

Whenever you're in the midst researching a business report, studying for an exam, or learning a new skill or hobby, consider napping as a helpful tool. And use this learning strategy from our Personal Genius Paraliminal to improve your learning outcomes:

  • Study in 30-minute time periods.
  • Spend the first 5 minutes organizing your materials and preparing your mind for relaxed concentration.
  • Then spend 20 minutes studying or researching.
  • Take the next 5 minutes to relax and move around, even if your work is going well.
  • Repeat the cycle for as many 30-minute periods as you need.
  • After three 30-minute periods, take a 15-minute break or—better yet—a power nap!

You'll improve the effectiveness of your learning sessions, sharpen your memory, speed your skill development, and enhance your creativity. Maybe you have kids at home who could improve their skills with a nap.

To develop your ability to quickly attain and maintain an ideal state for learning, listen to the Personal Genius Paraliminal in the MINDTRX app.

Simply push play, close your eyes, relax, and listen. This closed-eye process activates your "whole mind" with a precise blend of music and words to help you get the most out of every minute.


Habits, Learning & Growth, Productivity, Sleep & Relaxation


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