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'Sleep on it' - but only if it's really difficult
Story supplied by LU Press Office
The experiments took place in Lancaster University's sleep lab
?A new study from psychologists at Lancaster University has found that sleeping on a tricky problem really can help.
The study, published online this month in the journal Memory & Cognition, tested whether sleep or time spent awake worked best in helping people find the solutions to a range of problem solving tasks.
Participants in the study - 27 men and 34 women - were asked to attempt easy and difficult verbal insight problems and, following a period of sleep, time spent wake, or no delay at all, the three groups of participants reattempted previously unsolved problems.
The sleep group solved a greater number of difficult problems than the other groups, but no difference was found for easy problems.
The authors of the study - Ut Na Sio, Padraic Monaghan and Tom Ormerod all from the Centre for Research in Human Development and Learning at Lancaster's Department of Psychology - concluded that sleep facilitates problem solving but this has its primary effect for harder problems.
Professor Padraic Monaghan said: "We've known for years that sleep has a profound effect on our ability to be creative and find new solutions to problems. Our study shows that this sleep effect is greatest when the problems facing us are difficult.
"Sleep appears to help us solve problems by accessing information that is remote to the initial problem, that may not be initially brought to mind. Sleep has been proposed to 'spread activation' to the solution that is initially distant from our first attempts at the problem.
"The advice stemming from this and related research is to leave a really difficult problem aside if you're stuck, and get some sleep."
Fri 26 October 2012
Latest News
Geography student sets up film company
It is well known that Geography graduates are highly employable and use their degrees in many different ways. One of the more unusual we have heard about recently is Lancaster geographer Greg Tomaszewicz who has set up his own Video Production Company - Lanor Productions.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Fri 22 February 2013
Eco-innovation businesses invited to attend pioneering project launch
Ambitious North West SMEs keen to drive forward eco-innovative ideas and products are invited to a major event in Manchester on March 4.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Thu 21 February 2013
First Science and Technology Business Partnerships and Enterprise Annual Report 2011-2012 available to download now
2011-2012 saw the development of a new theme-based strategy for Business Partnerships and Enterprise in Science and Technology. The seven interdisciplinary themes are: Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Environment, Health and Human Development, Information and Communication Technologies, Quantum Technology and Security. Each theme has dedicated professional staff to work with businesses and source the expertise they need.
Tue 19 February 2013
Lancaster University Coffeemat Challenge won by Science and Technology student Seb
The concept of a new university website, complete with mobile application, to capture the campus social scene at a glance, earned an enterprising student an iPad.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Tue 19 February 2013