A recent study in the journal of sleep has shown that sleeping helps to consolidate learning. While this has been known for some time, the practical use of naps to help memory consolidation has not been studied.
In this study, young adult students learned detailed knowledge in sessions either side of either, napping, taking a break, or cramming that information. Knowledge retention was tested after 30 mins and one week later.
The results showed that when tested 30 mins after learning, both cramming and napping led to significantly better recall than taking a break. After a week however, only napping was significantly better and cramming was not.
While cramming was good for immediate recall of information, napping proved to help consolidate memory for longer term recall.
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsy207/5146032
