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The latest research done by Oxford University in England, and published by Lancet, was recently reported by WebMD, that napping is not just for babies. The study showed that an afternoon nap is great for adults, too. There is no need to feel lazy for indulging in daytime sleep. A short nap in the mid afternoon, can boost memory, improve job performance, lift your mood, make you more alert and ease your stress.
In the olden days, it was believed that afternoon naps that is siesta, could make even an ugly woman beautiful, so the fairy tail “beauty nap” was coined as a strategy to beautify all women. The research I mentioned earlier also showed that nap plays an important role in storing memories. A nap can help you to remember things learned earlier in the day, as much as a full night sleep. Napping works to keep you from forgetting things like motor skills, sense perception and verbal recall too.
If you are feeling down, try taking a nap to lift your spirits. Napping or even just resting for one hour without falling asleep, can brighten your outlook. Experts say relaxation that comes from lying down and resting is a mood booster, whether you fall asleep or not.
If you start to feel a bit sleepy right after a heavy lunch, you are not alone. The white men knew this from time immemorial. I remember in Government College Umuahia in the early 70s, it was a stand- ing law that every body must observe his siesta immediately after lunch each day. I was curious and inquisitive, so I asked one of our masters, a white man Dr Uni. He smiled, and referred me to the processes of digestion in Biology. He said I should go and solve the problem myself.
I only found the answer when entered medical school, and it was by accident. An Indian Lecturer entered the class one after noon for a lecture in Physiology and found half of the class sleeping. He said, he was not surprised, that after a heavy lunch or any other heavy meal, our pancreas produces insulin for digestion, this induces our body to produce sleep hormones, which are metabolized to serotonin and melatonin in our brain and they induce drowsiness. This nervous response, tells our body to slow down, and stop doing whatever we are doing, and allow our body and mind to focus on digestion.
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A nap as short as 10 minutes can be beneficial, but keep your nap to less than 30 minutes to achieve maximum good effect. Anything more than that will make you feel more tired. That grogginess you feel after a prolonged nap is called sleep inertia. The longer you nap, the more likely you are to have that feeling. This makes it worse for you to transition to study or work.
Again research has shown that if you regularly take long naps, instead of short naps, within the day, you may suffer from insomnia (inability to sleep at night). This may eventually lead to chronic insomnia. If you are under a lot of pressure, a nap can release stress and improve your immune health. Experts believe that 30-min- ute-nap can do the trick.
A study showed that people who napped for 30 to 40, minutes a day, had lower blood pressures, after going through mental stress. So a nap can help your body recover from pressure filled situations. Can napping be timed. Some say nap is better between 2 and 3 pm, when humans naturally have a dip in alertness. So choose the appropriate time for your nap and make the best out of it. Always be medically guided.
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