简介：
Preschool Z's Make Good Memories
爱午睡的孩子，记性不会太差
In a study, preschoolers who take a midday nap retained recently learned information better.
一项研究发现，那些要睡午觉的小朋友，能将上午学到的知识记得更好。
撰文/播音 苏菲•布什威克(Sophie Bushwick)
The midday nap is a preschool tradition. But is it necessary? Some preschools plan to eliminate this downtime to fit in more teaching, which could come at the expense of learning. Because a study suggests that the snooze may help kids retain information they learned earlier in the day. The work is published in PLOS ONE. [Laura Kurdziel et al., Sleep spindles in midday naps enhance learning in preschool children]
睡午觉是幼儿园的传统，但小孩子真有必要午睡吗？一些幼儿园正计划取消午睡，从而腾出更多的上课时间。然而，这一举措很可能适得其反，因为一项研究显示，中午打个小盹儿，或许可以帮孩子们把上午学的知识记得更好。这项研究发表在《公共科学图书馆•综合》上。
To see how naps affect academic performance, researchers taught 40 preschoolers between the ages of 3 and 6 to perform a memory task. After a few hours of break time the children either stayed awake or got to nap, sleeping for an average of 77 minutes.
为了研究午睡如何影响小朋友的学习表现，研究人员教40个3到6岁的孩子做了一项“记忆任务”。完成学习的几小时后，一些孩子保持着清醒状态，而另一些孩子去打了个平均77分钟的盹儿。
Although napping made no significant difference to feelings of sleepiness, it did help enhance memory. When tested later in the day, students who had rested performed better. Even the next day, the children who had napped after the initial lesson still retained more information.
尽管打盹儿并没有让孩子们显得精神更好，但却使他们表现出了更强的记忆力。在当天晚些时候进行的测验中，那些睡了午觉的孩子取得了更好的成绩，而就算到了第二天，他们依然能记得更多的东西。
The benefit was greatest for students who took naps regularly, not just during the study, which suggests schools may want to keep sleep on the syllabus.
这一优势在那些本就习惯每天午睡小孩身上表现得最为明显。因此，幼儿园和学校大概还是将午睡的项目保留为好。
(题图来源：blog.bufferapp.com)
