This research is a lesson in being more relaxed about learning, memory and skill acquisition.
While studying the brainwave states of people doing memory tasks by typing numbers on a keyboard, the researchers noticed big spikes of activity in brainwaves while the participants took a short break designed to stop the fingers getting tired.
In this case it was 10 seconds on and 10 seconds off.
During the 10 seconds off, brain activity increased significantly.
Interestingly the levels of skill improvement for these people on the same day, mirrored what the researchers would expect to find after a nights sleep where typically it is known that most memory and skill consolidation occurs.
And the next day, after a nights sleep, there was no significant further improvement than the day before.
What this means (albeit with more investigation to confirm) is that these short frequent breaks while learning a new skill, increased the speed and efficiency of learning in a similar way to what sleep will do.
In effect you can put multiple days of learning within one day and potentially increase skill in a shorter period of time.
Good to know.
57 breaks were taken while learning about this research. Haha, no I’m kidding but you get the idea.