According to a new study, getting shut-eye before you learn is important, because it will help you store knowledge learned earlier.

最新研究显示，学习之前小憩一下非常重要，因为这一眨眼的休息能够帮你牢记之前学过的东西。

Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues recruited 27 women and 17 men to come to the sleep lab.

First, the volunteers had to memorize 100 names and faces.

Then they were tested for how well they recalled the face-name matches.

加州大学伯克利分校心理与神经系统科学教授马修•沃克尔和同事招募了27名女性志愿者和17名男性志愿者，在睡眠实验室进行实验。

实验第一步要求志愿者对100张脸孔及对应名称进行记忆。

随后研究人员对他们的记忆情况进行了检测。

Next, the researchers tucked half of the volunteers in for a nap between 2 pm and 3:40 pm.

The other group of participants stayed awake and did daily activities.

At 6 pm, both groups memorized another set of 100 faces and names and were tested on their memory.

实验的第二步骤，研究人员将志愿者分为两组，一组于下午2点到3:40进行短暂休息。

而另一组则保持清醒，从事日常活动。

下午6点，两组人员都需对另外100张面孔和名字进行记忆并接受检测。

The first major finding, Walker said, was that learning ability degrades as the day wears on.

Volunteers who didn't nap did about 12 percent worse on the evening test than they did on the morning test.

Napping test-takers did about 10 percent better on the evening test than they did on the morning test.

沃克尔称第一个重要发现便是，人们的学习能力会由早到晚递减。

那些没有中途休息的志愿者在晚间测试中的表现比早间测试差了12个百分点。

有过短暂休息的志愿者在晚间测试的表现则要比早上好10个百分点。

"It's almost like clearing out your informational inbox of your e-mail so you can start to receive new e-mails," Walker said.

"It's not simply enough to sleep after learning, it turns out you also need to sleep before learning.

"小憩就像是清空大脑中的收件箱，然后才能接收新邮件，”沃克尔说。

光是学习后休息是不够的，还需要在学前睡一会儿。

”【[双语新闻] 小憩有助于增强记忆力查看网站：[db:时间]】