London - A good night’s sleep could help boost women’s brain power, while a long afternoon nap has a similar effect on men, according to a study.
Researchers believe the differences between how sleep affects the sexes could be down to how men and women’s brains are structured, as well as how hormonal changes affect the body during the day.
The scientists analysed the sleep patterns of 160 adults with a broad range of IQs, of whom 72 were women and 88 men. Participants took intelligence tests measuring reasoning and problem solving.
The researchers monitored how ‘sleep spindles’ – bursts of activity in the brain – appeared during the dreamless, non-rapid eye movement state of sleep.
Sleep spindles vary in length and intensity and can ‘light up’ different parts of the brain. They have previously been associated with intelligence.
The German study, presented at the FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Denmark yesterday, found an overnight link between slow sleep spindles and intelligence in women, but not men.
Martin Dresler, of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, said the presence of sleep spindles could indicate the quality of white matter in the brain, which connects to grey matter that processes information.
He added integrity of white matter was more strongly associated with higher IQ scores in women than men. This suggested the structure of women’s brains meant overnight sleep that boosted this white matter could benefit their intelligence.
Researchers also examined 86 men having afternoon naps of 100 minutes. They showed a similar link between slow sleep spindles and intelligence that was evident for women overnight.
The scientists said this showed there was a ‘fundamental difference’ between daytime and night-time sleep.
Daily Mail