Interesting research report on what sleep at different times of the day and night does to your cognitive abilities:
Overall, their studies suggest that the brain uses a night's sleep to consolidate the memories of habits, actions and skills learned during the day.
The bottom line: we should stop feeling guilty about taking that "power nap" at work or catching those extra winks the night before our piano recital…
"All such learning of new actions may require sleep before the maximum benefit of practice is expressed," note the researchers. Since a full night's sleep is a prerequisite to experiencing the critical final two hours of stage 2 NREM sleep, "life's modern erosion of sleep time could shortchange your brain of some learning potential," added Walker.
I average about 5h per night and get up between 5 and 6 every morning. Perhaps this is why I'm such a spaz.
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