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Brainiacs at The University of Edinburgh, UK, have discovered a new way to help you retain information – without doing daily Sudoku puzzles or guzzling fish oil.

Taking a brief “wakeful rest” – closing your eyes in a quiet area for a few minutes – after learning something new can help you remember it, not just briefly, but in the long-term.

"Our findings support the view that the formation of new memories is not completed within seconds," says psychological scientist Michaela Dewar.

"Our work demonstrates that activities that we are engaged in for the first few minutes after learning new information really affect how well we remember this information."

So remember this study – it could be a good excuse to use if your boss ever catches you taking a bit of shut-eye on the job.

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