Thank you so much, Scientific American, for the recently published research which says that if we need to absorb new information during the afternoon, we should take a nap first. It’s the excuse we’ve all been waiting for!
Apparently the hippocampus – the part of the brain which stores new information – can get “full” during the day, but when you sleep the brain moves this new stuff into the prefrontal cortex for longer term storage. A bit like using an external hard drive to move those newly created videos to, I guess.
I am so delighted to have this excuse to try out some new techniques. In the training room, it means that we should turn the standard “graveyard shift” session after lunch into a much more productive “kip” for 30 minutes. Bliss!
And now rather than a quick coffee break after that one hour mind numbing presentation, we should instead take out our travel pillows, turn out the lights and get some serious zzzzz’s in.
I think I can see how I can justify this new approach at work: the only slight question is whether this rationale will work for me at home. I may possibly just have to continue to sneak in the odd illicit 40 winks in the garden shed under the guises of fixing the lawnmower.
Sometimes logic itself is not enough to win the argument!
That’s enough on this topic, your Hippocampus must be full.
Sleep well!
