Go ahead, take that afternoon nap, it could boost mental ability study says via Storyblocks and last updated 2021-01-29 16:34:52-05 Taking an afternoon nap could be good for the brain, a new study suggests. The study, published in General Pschiatry, looked at results of cognitive tests in people who regularly took an afternoon nap and those who didnât. They specifically studied more than 2,200 people in China who were 60 or older. Naps were defined by researchers as a period of sleep taken after lunch lasting between five minutes and two hours. Both the nappers and the non-nappers took cognitive tests which assess âvisual space, memory, naming, attention, calculation, abstract, orientation and language function,â according to the studyâs authors.