Improve Your Memory

Or in non-researcher-speak, sleeping on it helps your brain file away what you've learned and makes that information easier to access.

But you don't have to go to bed to improve your memory and recall.

A study just published in Nature Reviews Psychology found that "evn a few minutes of rest with your eyes closed can improve memory, perhaps to the same degree as a full night of sleep."

Psychologists call that "offline waking rest." In its purest form, offline waking rest can be closing your eyes and vegging out for a couple minutes. But offline waking rest can also be daydreaming. 

Mind wandering. Zoning out. None of which sounds productive, but actually can be: Without those intermittent periods of lack of focus, memory consolidation doesn't occur nearly as efficiently.  READ MORE...

Mind Wandering

Research shows that one of the most effective ways to spur creativity is to allow your mind to wander and to follow it without judgment. But science also shows why that is tougher than it sounds.

In 2010, two researchers working at Harvard University began exploring how people feel about and experience mind wandering. They did so by interrupting people at random times of the day by sending texts to cellphone numbers they'd gathered, along with the consent to interrupt. They got responses from 2,250 adults.

The text messages they sent asked a handful of questions. One was, "What are you doing right now?" and that question could be answered with a number from 1 to 22 that corresponded to various common, everyday activities—taking a walk, working, grooming/self-care, doing housework, taking care of children, making love. 

(First off, let's dispense with the joke that for many people sex is not nearly as everyday an activity as they might like.) What's of note about making love is that it was by far the least likely time for a study subject's mind to wander. People were, as they say, on task.

That was not the case, though, for so many other activities.

On average, people's minds wandered 47% of the time.

To read more about mind wandering, CLICK HERE...