Have you heard the saying “if you can’t fix an issue, just sleep on it”? It’s not just random advice to calm you down before bed, science now proves how sleep can help you think clearly and solve a problem.
In a recent study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, investigators examined how a specific type of sleep, afternoon naps, helps in creative problem-solving.
The researchers conducted problem-solving experiments in a group of 58 people below the age of 30 from Texas State University. Half of the participants were allowed to take a two-hour afternoon nap before solving a puzzle they had previously been unable to solve, while the other half attempted the puzzle without sleep.
The results showed that people who took a nap before solving the problems performed better than those who stayed awake. On average, the sleep group solved 43% of the problems, while the wake group solved only 15%.
The researchers concluded that this is because sleep, especially the type that includes the REM phase, helps people in an analogical transfer to solve issues that could not be done before the nap. Analogical transfer is the ability to use insights from a different problem to solve a new, related problem.
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a phase where your eyes move rapidly in different directions, and brain activity becomes as high as when you’re awake. “This sleep stage [REM] may play a key role in putting past experiences to best use by establishing and strengthening associations that are not readily apparent in our waking lives,” the researchers wrote.
“My previous research has focused on understanding how memories change during sleep. However, the reorganization of knowledge that occurs during memory consolidation undoubtedly impacts other aspects of cognition as well. I was specifically interested in how the initiation and/or strengthening of connections between new and old memories can assist in problem-solving,” said study author Carmen E. Westerberg, a professor at Texas State University.
“The main takeaway is that if you have a difficult problem that you cannot solve, processes that occur while you are sleeping may give you insights after waking that could help to solve the problem,” Westerberg added.
