Daytime naps can help babies’ developing brains to retain new information, according to a US study. Researchers at the University of Arizona, found infants who nap during the day are more likely to exhibit an advanced level of learning called abstraction; the ability to detect a general pattern contained in new information.
Researchers played phrases from an artificial language to 15 month old babies. By watching their faces, they found they spent longer looking at a flashing light that coincided with phrases they recognised.
The babies who had slept within four to eight hours of earing the phrases showed evidence of abstract learning, whereas those who didn’t nap did not.