Spain Crowns Nap Champ at Siesta Contest

So the boss can get more out of you

(NEWSER) - Remember in kindergarten they used to make us take naps? Turns out your office is a lot like kindergarten, and your boss should be handing you a mat, writes Tony Schwartz at Fast Company, and here's why:

• Memory: Subjects in a Harvard memory study who napped "sustained their performance all day long. Those who didn't nap performed increasingly poorly as the day wore on," Schwartz writes.
• Reaction time: Pilots given a 30-minute nap on long flights saw their reaction time improve by 16%; non-nappers' reactions fell off by 34%.

Kalamazoo Central student dozes through reward for winning video

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama yesterday presented Kalamazoo Central High School's class of 2010 with their reward for winning his "Race to the Top" video competition: a commencement address from him. Thousands of students submitted inspiring videos about their schools; you can see Kalamazoo's over at the Huffington Post . Or cut to the chase and catch this soon-to-be-classic video above, in which a kid demonstrates his enthusiasm for Obama's historic visit by struggling to stay awake. Enjoy. More»

Sleeping for 90 minutes at midday boosts the brain's ability to learn

(NEWSER) - Taking a nap after lunch helps the brain "reset" and prepare to assimilate new information, researchers say. "It's as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact e-mails, you're not going to receive any more mail," says the author of a new study. "It's just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder." More»

(NEWSER) - Napping is a good idea, but afternoon slumber eludes many of us. Mental Floss offers some pointers for adults who have trouble snoozing while the sun shines.

• Don't fight it: Humans are hardwired to hit the sack twice a day.
• The optimal nap length is 20 or 90 minutes.

Government will pour in billions more to prevent collapse

(NEWSER) - Spain's banking crisis grew sharply worse yesterday, as officials at Bankia, the country's leading mortgage lender, said it would need an additional $24 billion, reports the New York Times . The move effectively nationalizes the troubled bank, just two weeks after the government took over 45% of Bankia , and single-handedly would nearly double the size of all the Spanish government's banking bailouts since 2010, notes the Wall Street Journal . Standard & Poor's also cut its credit rating on Bankia and two other Spanish banks to junk status, and lowered the ratings on two other banks. More»