Sleeping Can Make Me Smarter!?!?

In a recent study led by Sara Mednick, a psychiatrist, said that people who took naps showing REM sleep, or rapid eye movement, where dreams are more vivid, were better at combining ideas in new ways. To start off the experiment in the morning the participants took a word-analogy test similar to the SAT problems. At midday they were given a 90 minute rest period where they took naps with REM sleep, a second group took a REM-less nap, meaning they didn't go through the REM sleep which happens an hour after a person falls asleep. Finally the third group rested quietly but didn't sleep. In the afternoon they took another test where they were asked to guess what word is associated with three apparently unrelated words. The questions asked on the second round had the same answers as the first round and the REM nappers had improved performances by 40 percent. The non-REM nappers showed no improvements. This experiment showed that REM sleep is a very important part of a person's sleep.
This article relates to biology because it's about the brain and supports the fact that sleep is very important. Also it shows how sleep can affect the abilities of a human. It relates to biology because it shows how the human brain acts when in different situations. Another reason why it relates to biology is because sleep does not only help humans funstion but it also helps animals function.
This article is important because even though we are told all the time that sleeping is important people still don't listen and sleep less than what they are suppose to. This research proved once more that sleep can not only make you younger, give you more energy, relieve stress but can make you smarter by improving your ability to make connections as well as your memory. This can especially help students from all ages to go to sleep early and take naps in order to perform better and recapture what they have learned. Also so they can stop pulling all nighters!!