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One of the best educational tips I got as a teen was to write down my math problems (things I didn't grasp) in the evening and read them after waking up in the weekend. Suddenly you're hit with a series of "aha"-moments and problems get solved in minutes. Tiredness has an enormous impact on your problem-solving skills.
It is a well known fact for decades, sleep, REM sleep has a major role in sleep. Not only in neurophysiology but by the broader science audience and I am surprised by the title "Surprising" indeed.
".. sleep has a major role in sleep" - do you mean "learning has a major role in sleep"?
edit: yes.. was a bit sleepy..
You learn best when you get 7.5+ hours of sleep.

I don't find that surprising at all.

On the other hand, maybe its just me (which I don't think), but has anyone else noticed that when you get >8.5h of sleep, you're actually less productive the next day? I always feel sluggish the whole day when I get that much sleep.
Correlation, not causation.

One possible root cause for >8.5 hours sleep is that you have heavy sleep debt and need the sleep, in which case one night isn't enough to fix the whole debt, and so of course you'll still be tired.

Another possible root cause is that you might have sleep apnea, and on that particular night you were not breathing very much and so your sleep was not restful.

No, oversleeping messes with the body cycles and mental stimulation. Understomulation causes boredom which causes lerhargyn
Yes. But it doesn't relate to actual hours of sleep, but to what you're used to.

Whenever you sleep significantly less or significantly more than the average time you sleep every day, you will feel sluggish.

Unless you sleep something like an hour, then sleep deprivation euphoria kicks in and you feel hyper all day, but can't actually think at all.

I often sleep more than 8.5hrs and I think there might be more here than meets the eye. For one thing I think if you sleep longer you're more likely to wake up dehydrated which makes you feel the sleep didn't do you well. You can avoid this by chugging water when you wake or by drinking water during the night. Also I think folks with allergies can feel worse if they sleep longer, if they're breathing more dust from pillows etc.
Sounds more like "The Common Wisdom Link Between Sleep And Learning". Not even a little surprising.
Interesting but unsurprising.
For a more comprehensive overview of the topic, see the old "Good sleep, good learning, good life" article:

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm