In the study, led by Dr Sara Mednick, a leading sleep researcher at the University of California, a group of people were given a simple memory test. They were tested again after having either a nap with REM sleep, a nap without REM sleep or a period of quiet rest.
The quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups showed no improvement in the test but the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 per cent.
Dr Mednick said: "REM sleep is vital for pulling together all the information we process daily and turning it into memories to use later. This has helped us to understand more about the benefits of sleep."
Meanwhile Harvard psychology professor Daniel Schacter claims that a good memory may help people to see their own future. "Memories support the formation in our minds of future events," he said.
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