Though it doesn't prove that sleep will help learn more effectively but it does provide more evidence that the brain doesn't just rest and dream when asleep, BBC radio reported.

The brain appears to also be reviewing the day's events and processing them. You put the movie in and you replay it. This says sleep is really adding something that we shouldn't go with our gut instinct. We should sleep on it.

Previous sleep research has focused on memory and on what happens when people don't get enough sleep. It may seem obvious that people would perform a task better after getting some sleep.
This study looked at 54 college American students (aged 18-23 years) who had a brief chance to learn something and then either slept or stayed awake.
One group of students learned a gambling game in the morning, while the other learned it in the evening, although no one was allowed to learn the trick to beating the game. Then they came back 12 hours later to play the game.

Those who had a chance to get a full night's sleep after learning the game did a better job of figuring out the trick to do it.
Eighty percent of those who slept figured out the trick to beat the game, while 40 percent of those who stayed awake did.

The researchers assigned the game to other groups of students and found that the time of day when they played it didn't affect their performance, boosting the case that sleep was a crucial factor for the first two groups. The brain appears to process what it's learned during sleep.

The study emphasises the growing awareness of the importance of sleep for optimal mental functioning.

It is consistent with other studies suggesting that sleep allows you to integrate learned information from various brain regions, which is not allowable by instant decisions.

This gives credence to the notion that if you have a decision to make, sleep on it.