Are Power Naps Really That Powerful?
Yesterday I was home, trying to make the best out of the sickday I took. It was the usual picture of awful daytime tv, soup, fluids and napping! I napped a lot throughout the course of the day and at some point, I remembered hearing that naps are actually good for you and should be added into your daily routine, much like exercise!
This was pleasant news to me because I have always been a fan of the catnap. Apparently, so is William Anthony, Ph.D., director of Boston University’s Center for Psycological Rehabilitation. He even keeps a couch in his office and no, it’s not for patients to relax and talk about their feelings; it’s for him to take a nap! He says, “a short nap increases productivity, sharpens the senses and lifts the spirit. It’s what your mother told you when you were a cranky toddler: go take a nap! It works the same way with adults.”
It’s also been reported that poor sleep quality or not enough sleep can cause stress to the body and mind. Can a nap reverse these effects? According to the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detriot, yes!
Napping is “clearly beneficial to someone who is a normal sleeper but who is getting insufficient sleep at night,” says center director Timothy Roehrs, Ph.D. “We don’t understand the underlying neurobiology, but sleep time is cumulative.”
Roehrs says his group compared the alertness of people who slept eight hours a night to that of people who slept less but took a nap during the day. Both groups were equivalent, he says.
His group has also found benefits in the “prophylactic” nap for people who have to stay up late. “It protected them from sleepiness,” he says. “A two-hour or a four-hour nap, before they have to be up all night, does provide additional alertness the next day.” Research conducted by NASA produced similar results.
Naps are clearly useful for some people, including shift workers, students, and anyone doing long-haul work, such as pilots on transcontinental runs.
Now…how to convince management that siestas are a good idea…
www.webmd.com
