Catnaps 'can boost your brain power'

Getting lots of sleep – and even nodding off for an hour or two – boosts brain power dramatically, according to scientists.

Conversely, the more hours people spend awake, the more sluggish their minds become, evidence shows.

The findings may even indicate a link between older people sleeping less and suffering "senior moment" memory lapses.

New research by a team of US experts shows that memories are "downloaded" in the brain during a specific phase of sleep.

Scientists believe sleep is needed to clear the brain's short-term memory storage and make space for new information.

Lead researcher Dr Matthew Walker, from the University of California at Berkeley, said: "Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness, but at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap."

In one recent study the team divided 39 healthy young adults into two groups named "nap" and "no nap".

At noon, all the volunteers were subjected to a rigorous learning task designed to tax the hippocampus – the brain region that helps store fact-based memories.

Two hours later the nap group took a 60-minute siesta while the no nap group stayed awake. Later the same day, at 6pm, participants were given a new round of learning exercises.

Those who had remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning, while the performance of the nappers improved.