{"id":1612,"date":"2009-01-27T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthnews.nchealthplans.com\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2010-06-23T20:54:09","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T01:54:09","slug":"naps-improve-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/2009\/01\/naps-improve-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"NAPS IMPROVE MEMORY"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a recent article from The New Times<\/em>, napping may improve your memory.\u00a0 In a world where <\/a>everyone seems to be sleep deprived, we certainly can benefit from a little extra sleep once in a while.\u00a0 Not only do we feel better, but maybe we can improve our memory as well!\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0“Take a nap.\u00a0 Interrupting sleep seriously disrupts memory-making, compelling new research suggests.\u00a0 But on the flip side, taking a nap may boost a sophisticated kind of memory that helps us see the big picture and get creative.\u00a0 Over time, a chronic lack of sleep can erode the body in ways that leave us more vulnerable to heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.\u00a0 But perhaps more common than insomnia is fragmented sleep- the easy awakening that comes with aging, or worse, the sleep apnea that afflicts millions, whop quit breathing for 30 seconds or so over and over throughout the night.\u00a0 Indeed, scientists increasingly are focusing less on sleep duration and more on the quality of sleep, what’s called sleep intensity, in studying how sl of the sleep helps the brain process memories so they stick.\u00a0 Particularly important is “slow-wave sleep,” a period of very deep sleep that comes earlier\u00a0than better-known REM sleep, or dreaming time.\u00a0 Dr.\u00a0William Fishbein suspected a more active role fro the slow-wave sleep that\u00a0can emerge even in a power nap.\u00a0 Maybe our brains keep working during that time to solve problems and come up\u00a0with new ideas.\u00a0\u00a0so he and graduate student Hiuyan Lau devised a simple test: documenting relational memory, where the brain puts together separately learned facts in\u00a0new ways.\u00a0 First, they taught 20 English-speaking college students lists of Chinese words spelled with two characters- such as sister, mother, maid. Then half the students took a nap, being\u00a0monitored to be sure they didn’t move from\u00a0slow-wave sleep into the REM stage.\u00a0 Upon awakening, they took a multiple-choice test of Chinese words they’d never seen before.\u00a0 The nappers did much better at automatically learning that the first\u00a0of the two-pair characters in the words they’d memorized earlier always meant the same thing- female, for example.\u00a0 So they also were more likely than non-nappers to choose a new word containing that character meant “princess” and not “ape”.\u00a0 These students took a 90 minute nap, quite a luxury for most adults.\u00a0\u00a0 But even a 12 minute nap can boost some forms of memory, adds Dr. Robert Stickgood of Harvard Medical School.”<\/p>\n

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina<\/a>, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com<\/a> or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our qualified agents.\u00a0 Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina\u00a0(BCBSNC).\u00a0 <\/a>You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health.\u00a0 Call us for details.<\/p>\n

*The News Times, \"Nap without guilt to improve memory.  November 26, 2008.  Lauran Neergaard.<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to a recent article from The New Times, napping may improve your memory.\u00a0 In a world where everyone seems to be sleep deprived, we certainly can benefit from a little extra sleep once in a while.\u00a0 Not only do we feel better, but maybe we can improve our memory as well! \u00a0“Take a nap.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[23,136,193,192,191],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-nutrition","tag-bcbsnc","tag-blue-cross-blue-shield-of-north-carolina","tag-improving-memory","tag-napping","tag-sleep-apnea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2986,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions\/2986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}