Influência do cochilo na consolidação de memórias declarativas: um estudo realizado no contexto escolar

Abstract

The schooling process involves the acquisition of long-term declarative memories. Although the positive effect of naps on declarative memory consolidation is well established, the vast majority of the studies have been conducted in laboratories, and therefore the evidence of positive cognitive effects of daytime naps in the school setting remains scarce. To evaluate the association between napping and the long-term consolidation of declarative memories coming from curricular content, we researched a group of 5th grade students on elementary school I (N = 24 students, 14 boys and 10 girls, average 11 years old). At the beginning of each week, students were randomly sorted into groups G1 and G2, napping on Monday or Tuesday, after learning novel curricular content divided in 3 independent parts (A, B, C). From 8:15 to 9:20, students in the nap group were conducted to a quiet dark room (the school library) with mats, received sleep masks and were invited to nap during the next hour, while the students from the non-nap group remained in the classroom listening to a lecture on another curriculum content. After waking up, the students were asked how long they believed to have slept. Finally, at 9:20 all the students were allowed to return to their regular classroom activities. On Monday, G1 students received content A followed by a nap, while students from G2 received contents A + B. On Tuesday, G1 students received contents C + B while G2 students received C + nap. The classes were taught exclusively by the class teacher and the contents comprised Geography (2 weeks), History (3 weeks) and Science (3 weeks). Every Friday, all students were evaluated by a multiple-choice test containing 10 questions per content part (A, B and C; total number of questions = 30). This balanced design was executed for 8 consecutive weeks, allowing all students to participate in both nap and non-nap experiments. Science and History contents followed by naps longer than 30 minutes showed significantly higher scores (~10% more than waking controls) than contents followed by waking. The results support the notion that naps can be used in the school setting to enhance learning.