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Cynthia Moreno

Mrs. McCann

English 1302.201

8 February 2022

Naps and Their Impact on Studying

Nowadays, people have less time to do things such as napping. Adolescents, especially,

have no time to take naps since their schedules are filled with extracurricular activities, social

media, and homework and/or studying. Even though taking naps seems insignificant and maybe

even a waste of time, do people benefit from taking naps during any time of day? Are people

more likely to be productive after waking up, or are they less motivated to perform every day

chores and responsibilities? A researcher conducts an experiment to determine whether or not

napping for thirty minutes a day will improve information retention skills when studying for

school tests.

To begin, the researcher will take a thirty-minute nap every day for five days. The nap

will be taken at 6 PM, and the researcher will have an alarm set for 6:30 PM. Factors such as

studying, school, and homework will be taken into consideration. Although the research does

focus more on the impacts that naps have on studying, the researcher will also consider the

impacts on having motivation to perform every day tasks and responsibilities. The goal of the

research is to determine whether or not napping has benefits on the human body. This includes

information retention and the improvement of long-term memory. This research will be

measured by two tests taken at the researcher’s school and by using a series of Quizlets based on

the content of the two tests. This will allow the researcher to calculate the amount of information

that is retained by studying before and after a thirty-minute nap.

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During day one of the research, the researcher gets home after a long day at school, takes

a quick shower, and then begins to study their anatomy and physiology prefixes notes for a class.

There are a total of twelve prefixes that the researcher has to memorize. The researcher studies

from 5:30 PM to 5:55 PM, which are twenty-five minutes of studying, and then begins to prepare

for a nap. The researcher sets up their phone alarm for 6:30 PM, and at exactly 6 PM, the

researcher falls asleep almost instantly. As soon as the alarm rings, the researcher gets up and

creates a Quizlet with the prefixes before using the “test” option on the website to see how many

words their memory had retained before the nap. The researcher also felt a bit tired after the nap

and had a huge urge to continue sleeping. Out of the twelve terms, the researcher was able to

remember nine.
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Work Cited

Cousins, James N., et al. "The long-term memory benefits of a daytime nap compared with

cramming." Sleep, vol. 42, no. 1, 2019. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/long-

term-memory-benefits-daytime-nap-compared/docview/2339861964/se-2,

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy207.