I recently completed the Coursera course "Learning How to Learn".<p>Sleep was mentioned as being important for learning, as it erases some memories and makes the more important parts easier to remember. The brain rehearses the neural patterns of what you are trying to learn. It helps you figure out difficult problems and understand your topic.<p>"It's as if the complete deactivation of the conscious you in the pre-frontal cortex at the forefront of your brain helps other areas of your brain start talking more easily to one another, allowing them to put together the neural solution to your learning task while you're sleeping."<p>It was also mentioned that napping can help creativity, with Dali and Einstein mentioned having an interesting napping technique where they would sleep in a chair while holding something. Dropping the object would cause them to wake up with allegedly boosted creative ideas on the problem they had in mind.