Afternoon naps aid children’s learning 午睡幫助孩子學習

Getting young children to take an hour-long nap after lunch could help them with their learning by boosting brain power, a small study suggests.

一項小型研究顯示，讓小孩子在午餐後打盹1小時，可能有助他們增強腦力，幫助學習。

A nap appeared to help three-to-five-year-olds better remember pre-school lessons, US researchers said.

美國研究人員說，小睡一番似乎能幫助3到5歲的小孩更能記住學齡前的功課。

University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers studied 40 youngsters and report their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The benefit persisted in the afternoon after a nap and into the next day.

麻薩諸塞大學阿默斯特分校的研究人員觀察40名小孩，並在美國國家科學院院刊報告他們的發現。午睡的好處持續整個下午到隔天。

The study authors say their results suggest naps are critical for memory consolidation and early learning. When the children were allowed a siesta after lunch they performed significantly better on a visual-spatial tasks in the afternoon and the next day than when they were denied a midday snooze.

研究作者說，他們的研究結果顯示，午睡對鞏固記憶力與早期學習至關重要。小孩子要是可以在午餐後睡個午覺，他們在下午與隔天的視覺－空間工作表現，會比不能午睡時明顯較好。

新聞辭典

nap：名詞，午睡，下文的siesta、snooze也有類似意思。例句：Grandpa usually takes a nap after lunch.（阿公吃過午飯後通常會睡個午覺。）

persist：動詞，持續。例句：The cold weather is set to persist throughout the week.（這一週都將是寒冷的天氣。）

deny：動詞，被拒絕給予。例句：I was denied the opportunity of learning French at school.（我在學校沒機會學法文。）