Can napping really improve your memory?

CNN reports that a new study has found that naps can boost memories, but they work best if you dream. Robert Stickgold, the director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told CNN that “In the dream…the brain tries to figure out what’s important and what it should keep or dump because it’s of no value.” Dr. Stickgold also explains those dreams where you show up for a test that you are unprepared for. He says this type of scary dream is your brain trying to keep you from making this mistake.

The type of learning that occurs while you dream can be illustrated by the classic dream that many people have in which they show up for an exam that they haven’t studied for, Stickgold says.

“When you’re in school — especially college — there’s this ongoing sense that you haven’t done enough,” he says. “Maybe you didn’t make it to a lecture, or you had a paper due in three days that you hadn’t started, so you’re laying down memories that say, ‘I haven’t done anything that I need to do.’”

When someone has the exam dream (or nightmare), he says, “Your brain is taking the knowledge of what happened to help you behave differently in the future.”