A quick nap in the middle of the day might do more than fight off drowsiness. A study recently published in the journal NeuroImage reports that a brief afternoon sleep can shift how brain cells connect with one another, making it easier to take in and store new information. The research team, based at the Medical Center – University of Freiburg and the University of Geneva, found that this kind of reset does not necessarily require a full night’s sleep.

The idea is simple: as you move through the day, the brain keeps strengthening communication pathways as it processes sights, ideas, and experiences. That strengthening supports learning, but it can also crowd the system, leaving the brain less flexible for what comes next. In the new work, a short sleep period appeared to dial back that built-up activity and restore the brain’s readiness to learn, which could be especially useful during periods of high workload.

“Our results suggest that even short periods of sleep enhance the brain’s capacity to encode new information,” says study leader Prof. Dr. Christoph Nissen, who performed the study during his time as medical director of the sleep center at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Germany