“Not Just a Decadent Luxury”: The Power of Naps

We know that sleep is good for learning. But what about NAPS?

Over at BrainBlogger, Viatcheslav Wlassoff summarizes research suggesting that naps yield clear benefits for cognition, attention, and emotion.

Although I find research into the power of naps generally persuasive, I do worry about an important gap. Do naps interfere with sound night-time sleep?

That is: Wlassoff summarizes research showing than naps help sleep-deprived people. Do they help non-sleep-deprived people? And, do they make it harder to get a full night’s sleep?

If yes, then the short-term power of naps might create longer-term problems.

If you know of research that answers this question, I hope you’ll let me know.