Can 2 minutes of doing nothing make you smarter? Neuroscientists say yes

According to Dr Erin J Wamsley, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Furman University in South Carolina, USA, these quiet moments are not wasted at all. Wamsley, in her paper that yokes together years of research, suggests that resting quietly, even for a few minutes, can help the brain to strengthen memories, much like how a night’s sleep does. 

Sleep is not the only memory booster

For several years, scientists have shown how sleep helps us in remembering information. It is said after learning something new, sleeping soon after can significantly improve our ability to recall the next day. This is because sleep lets the brain ‘consolidate’ or, in simpler words, replay and strengthen new memories. This allows the brain to retain memory for the long term. 

Wamsley’s paper also throws light on some new findings, such as how even shorter periods of quiet wakefulness or the act of closing your eyes for 10 to 15 minutes after studying can produce a similar effect. In her experiments, those who rested quietly without any distractions right after learning something new remembered more than those who did another activity immediately after. 

In one of the experiments, people were told a short story, after which they either rested quietly or played a spot-the-difference game. Those who rested after the test remembered more than those who did something else. According to the researchers, this boost was still visible a week later. Similar results have been observed for motor skills such as finger-tapping patterns and spatial tasks such as remembering map routes. 

Why is rest crucial for memory?

To understand this better, imagine the brain’s memory consolidation as something like saving a document. When you learn something new, the details or ‘file’ are stored in the hippocampus region, which is also the brain’s quick-access memory. When you are resting, the hippocampus replays the information to the cortex, a region that is responsible for long-term storage. According to the paper, this replay seems to happen during sleep and moments of quiet wakefulness. 

This replay mechanism has also been recorded in animals. For instance, the same brain cells that fired while a rat navigated a maze fired up again when it rested later. Similarly, in brain-imaging studies, humans showed similar replay patterns while resting immediately after learning. Researchers also noted that certain brain waves, known as ‘sharp-wave ripples’ appeared during these replays. These waves seem like bursts of electrical activity in the hippocampus, and they often coincided with other slow waves, all enhancing connections. 

Rest vs sleep: What’s the difference?

Both rest and sleep can strengthen memories, but they are not the same. Both have the ability to reduce sensory input, lower the levels of a brain chemical called acetylcholine, and allow memory replay. Unlike rest, sleep has stronger spindles and slow-wave activity, which are likely to make the brain consolidation last longer. 

Essentially, a few minutes of resting with eyes closed can stabilise a memory for hours. However, sleep may be needed to make it last for days or weeks. Wamsley proposes that rest provides a temporary ‘saving draft’, while sleep does the final save.

During their experiments comparing two, 30 minutes of rest and 30 minutes of napping led to almost similar memory gains immediately afterwards. But it needs to be noted that only those who later slept overnight retained the benefit for longer. 

Can micro-rests actually help?

In the research, Wamsley points to findings that show even seconds-long micro-rests can help. The human brain is capable of naturally switching between ‘online’ or focussed and ‘offline’ or drifting states multiple times in a minute. According to the researchers, when you take these quick pauses or simply stare into space mid-task, the sensory input drops, and the brain shows the slow and synchronised patterns connected to memory replay. 

Moreover, in studies using EEG and eye-tracking, people entered mini-offline states every few seconds. According to scientists, the more often this happened after learning something, the better they remembered it. This essentially proves that even tiny moments of zoning out may help your brains save more information.