Research by Matthew Walker at the University of California (Berkeley) says that the best way to absorb new information after lunch is to take a mid-day siesta. Apparently the hippocampus, the area of our brains that stores new material, can fill up fast during the course of a long day, especially if we are being assaulted by digital trivia all day.

But taking a nap allows the brain to move information into the pre-frontal cortex for long-tern storage, thereby freeing up more space for incoming data. Another example, perhaps, of how the future is the past.