After a bad night of sleep, nothing sounds better than an afternoon siesta, right?
But according to a new study, a nap might not actually help.Research from Michigan State University shows those who took a nap did just as poorly on a cognitive test as the sleep-deprived group.
That's not to say napping is a bad idea. Although a nap won't help with a cognitive test, it can boost what is know as "slow wave sleep" which is considered the deepest and most restorative stage of sleep.
Study author Dr. Kimberly Fenn calls it “the most important stage of sleep. Participants who got more slow-wave sleep tended to have fewer errors on the tests, but they still didn’t do as well as the group who went home and slept overnight."