People who sleep for eight hours are significantly better at remembering faces and names after seeing them for the first time, a new study has found.
Researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston conducted the study on 14 participants, who were shown 20 photos of faces with corresponding names from a database of over 600 colour photographs of adult faces and asked to memorise them. After a twelve-hour period, they were then shown the photos again with either a correct or incorrect name. In addition to answering whether or not the correct name was shown, participants were asked to rate their confidence on a scale of one to nine.
“We know that many different kinds of memories are improved with sleep. While a couple of studies have looked at how naps might affect our ability to learn new faces and names, no previous studies have looked at the impact of a full night of sleep in between learning and being tested,” said Jeanne F Duffy, associate neuroscientist in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.