Experts say that the best way to learn is to "sleep like a baby," according to study results by a team of Scientists from the University of Sheffield.

BBC News reports a group of scientists tested 216 babies who were up to 12 months old. Results showed that the babies who were unable to remember new tasks were the ones who did not have a lengthy sleep soon after learning the tasks

Each day, infants were taught three new tasks involving playing with hand puppets. After each lesson, half of the babies slept within four hours of learning, and the rest either napped for less than 30 minutes or had no sleep at all.

On average, the babies with the most sleep were able to repeat one-and-a-half tasks while those with little sleep were able to repeat zero tasks.

"Those who sleep after learning, learn well, those not sleeping don't learn at all," said Dr. Jane Herbert, from the department of psychology at the University of Sheffield.

She added that learning events just before sleep may be most important.

"Parents get loads of advice, some saying fixed sleep, some flexible, these findings suggest some flexibility would be useful, but they don't say what parents should do," Dr. Herbert added.

The results of the study also suggest that reading books before bedtime is essential to a child's development, according to Dr. Herbert.

Regular naps are key to helping babies learn and remember, according to Parent Dish. Babies who get enough sleep are most likely to remember skills they have learned.

Meanwhile, a study last year showed that sleep plays an important role in memory and learning, BBC News reported. Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School in China showed that participants with the most sleep learned the most. Their study also proved that even intense training could not make up for lost sleep.

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