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Lack of sleep can lead to many health problems, both physiological and psychological. But if you are lucky enough to take a nap all day long, you still have a chance to avoid the adverse effects of less sleep. Feeling drowsy or groggy in the morning, especially if you have not slept well at night, will affect you in different ways – it can hinder productivity, perception and decision-making abilities. According to a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, a nap at the right time could prevent the decision-making mind from getting lost under the influence of subconscious influences. A simple nap can help alleviate the symptoms of fatigue.
Led by Liz Coulthard, Ph.D., Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience, and Associate Scientist Netasha Shaikh, Ph.D., both from the School of Medicine at the University of Bristol, UK, This essay investigated the effects of a -a minute (long enough) nap on people's ability to sort out the subconscious factors that influence their decisions.
In the study, 16 volunteers took 90-minute naps, which equates to a complete sleep cycle, before moving on to a series of complex association tests to test decision of the brain in deliberately confusing circumstances. In real life, subconscious factors like hunger can lead to impulsive decision-making; In this test, researchers used words to unconsciously complicate the decision-making process.
This test was designed to prevent participants from making the right decision so that the team can observe the impact of sleep on this process. Participants simply had to identify a word displayed on the screen as a negative or positive word. Of course, it was not that simple. Just before seeing the main word, a different word, positive or negative, flashed for 33 milliseconds – so briefly that it would be impossible to consciously record what that word was, but long enough for the subconscious can understand it. It was the "first unconscious".
Predictably, previous studies have shown that seeing an unconscious prime number in harmony with the main word (for example, "peace" followed by "happy," the two positive words) makes it easier to categorize main word. However, in non-congruent word pairs, it is much harder to identify the second word, regardless of your sleep deprivation.
Nevertheless, the 16 volunteers who performed the test immediately after a 90-minute nap placed the words in their correct category more quickly, indicating that the task was easier than before they retired into the lab. The average time required for participants to identify word-inconsistent words increased from over 670 milliseconds before nap to just over 610 milliseconds after napping. It's a small difference, but researchers think it can be correlated to what's going on beneath the surface.
Posted on October 8, 2018 at 13:35
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