Good Nights Sleep Improves Performance of New Skills

Posted on 2002-09-30 07:03:38 in Sleep |

New research suggests that the best thing to do after learning a new skill that involves movement, such as playing the piano or kicking a football, is go to bed and get a good nights sleep. For the study researchers at Harvard Medical School asked volunteers to learn a "keypress" task, similar to learning how to play a new scale on the piano. Results showed that those who were trained in the evening, and then tested 12 hours later after a good nights sleep performed their new task significantly better than those trained in the morning and tested in the evening. Thus, suggesting that sleep helps the body to perfect newly learnt movement skills.

SOURCE/REFERENCE: Neuron 2002; 35:205-211


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