Taking breaks and adequate sleep improves learning skills

Researchers from the University of New South Wales found that taking breaks while training and getting enough sleep will make you learn more effectively than if you push yourself and practice non-stop.

Learning a new skill involves rewiring of the brain, a phenomenon called neural plasticity.

For the new skill to persist, those brain changes must be stabilised or consolidated by being transferred from short-term memory and locked into long-term memory.

"If the information and/or neural changes are not adequately consolidated, then learning will be temporary or not occur at all," researchers said in a statement.

Other research has found that lack of sleep, for example, can interfere with the consolidation process, as can trying to train for a second skill before the first one has properly sunk in.

"Many studies have shown that you don't learn if you don't sleep after a day of training, likewise, overtraining can reduce learning if you don't allow time for consolidation," researcher Joel Pearson said.

The researchers were specifically interested in the role played in learning by 'waking consolidation'