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What I'm Hearing is I Should Be Taking More Naps

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When we rest, a brain region called the hippocampus becomes active, replaying recent events to transfer them from short- to long-term memory. During rest after the social task, the mPFC connected with the hippocampus, providing support for the idea these social regions have an important memory function. "One of the main reasons--or adaptive potentials--to take breaks, even short breaks throughout our day-to-day life, is to help us retain information longer and transfer it into long-term memory," Andrews-Hanna notes. "The Meyer study is the first to extend these findings to social information and our memory of other people."

Meyer says one real-world application of the study could be that people need to get more rest throughout the day. "I think this data highlights that it might not always be a bad thing to be distracted with this system [the default mode network]. It might be doing something important for us that's helping us learn about social information," she says. For example, "taking a break after a big meeting might help you learn whatever you just witnessed socially."