The nap is an appointment that many people have during the afternoon and that is very difficult to leave aside. For decades, this practice has oscillated between being a purely Mediterranean cultural trait and a productivity “hack” repeated ad nauseum. However, taking a short break during the day is not a luxury for some, but is a top-level brain maintenance mechanism.
They have studied it. To prove exactly why napping is so beneficial, a study chose to investigate the effects it has on the brain. Their objective was none other than to check if a short period of sleep could trigger the same ‘brain cleansing’ processes that occur during sleep. And the answer is a resounding yes.
Neuronal “saturation”. To understand the impact of the study, you must first understand the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis. This tells us that since we wake up, our brain processes information non-stop and each stimulus and each new piece of information strengthens the connections between our neurons. A classic example may be in a student who is trying to learn an opposition syllabus.
The problem is that this continuous increase in synaptic strength consumes a lot of energy and takes up physical and metabolic space. The really important thing here is that there comes a point in the day when the brain is “saturated” since cortical excitability is so high that the ability to consolidate new information plummets. This is when the system literally asks us to “reset” in order to continue processing the information to which we are exposing it.
How have they seen it? The experiment involved 20 young adults, and rather than relying on subjective surveys of “how rested they felt,” the team turned to direct physical measurements. They used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to measure corticospinal excitability and electroencephalograms to monitor brain activity.
Once the method was in place, it was decided to evaluate the patients first between 1:15 p.m. and 2:15 p.m., after spending a good amount of time awake, and then after taking a 45-minute nap.
The results. They clearly saw with these analyzes that the brain cleaned its neurons and irrelevant connections were weakened, lowering the “background noise” and returning the system to an optimal state to create new connections again.
But also, by releasing this charge, the neurons recovered a very high capacity to induce Long Term Enhancement. That is, the brain was once again in optimal conditions to create a lasting memory.
The 20 minute rule. A mantra that can be heard is that the optimal nap should be twenty minutes long in order to regain alertness quickly. However, this study indicates that, to achieve a true architectural recalibration of plasticity in the cerebral cortex, entering into a cycle of about 45 minutes allows the memory consolidation mechanisms to act in depth.
In this way, taking a break during the day is not at all something ‘lazy’ but rather it is a brain recalibration system that will allow us to increase our productivity when working or studying.
In Xataka | In Spain we have glorified the long nap. In scientific studies they have a different opinion on the matter.
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