A briefnapcould boost people's memory, according to new research.

Researchers at The City University of New York found that having a brief sleep improved people's ability to remember things.

Volunteers were told to memorise pairs of words. When they were tested straight afterwards and six hours later, those who had been allowed a nap of up to one hour before the retest achieved 15 percent higher scores than the volunteers who had not been allowed to go to sleep.

The researchers told New Scientist magazine: "Traditionally, time devoted to daytime napping has been consideredcounterproductive."

But they added that it now seemed that sleep was "an important mechanism for memory formation".

The study was published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the magazine said.

一項最新調查表明，小睡能增強記憶力。

紐約城市大學的研究者們發現，小睡一覺能提高人的記憶力。

研究人員讓參加調查的志愿者記住幾組單詞，并在分別記完之后和6小時后對他們進行測試。結果發現，那些在接受再次測試前小睡了1小時的人比未小睡的人得分高出15個百分點。

研究人員在接受《新科學家》雜志采訪時說："人們一直認為白天小睡起不到什么積極作用。"

但是，現在看來，睡眠"是形成記憶的一個重要途徑"。

據《新科學家》雜志介紹，此項研究結果發表在《學習和記憶神經生物學》上。