A recent study found that short sleep for about 90 minutes may help young children remember words better. The researchers at the University of Arizona found that those who had a nap after learning the words were able to remember it better after 4 hours.The researchers followed 24 children at an average age of two years, teaching them words such as "bope" and "dake".
Children were taught the words by putting a game on the computer under the title of space, with the recording using phrases like "Look! A dake" or "Touch the dake".
The children were then presented with pictures of the objects named after them and later asked to identify or refer to the images associated with the term "dake".
The researchers divided the children who learned the word group at home into two groups, in which the first group had a nap shortly after learning while the children of the second group remained awake.
Those who slept best remembered the new words within 4 hours and 24 hours.
"We were very careful not to deprive children of sleep," said Dr. Govredina Spanic, the lead author of the study. "The waking was done at a time when the child did not usually have a nap."The study did not apply to children with Down syndrome, where their brains may have differences in memory center known as hippocampus.
"If we can show that children learn differently when they get a nap, that's an indication of how important healthy sleep is," Spanic said.
SOURCE: University of Arizona
