Take a Nap, Feel Better and Do Good

Filed in archive Studies on May 9, 2007

According to University of California - San Diego (UCSD) researcher Sara Mednick and author of the book "Take a Nap! Change Your Life", when we feel tired after lunch or by mid-afternoon it will actually do us more good to take a nap than drink coffee.

"It also feels good. And what's wrong with that?

Napping also is important because many of us today say they have trouble sleeping.

And Americans aren't just cranky because they don't sleep enough. They face higher risks for health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and depression. They're also more likely to get into car crashes and other accidents."

Actually she is right. Now that I work at home and have the chance to take afternoon naps when I can and want to, I feel a lot better, definitely less tired, less stressed and less cranky than when I used to in the last 10 years when I can only take naps on free weekends when I didn't have to work.

In a month's time I'll be 34 and these days I can already feel what old people complain about: trouble sleeping at night, being awake early even if I sleep late at night. My mother will be 59 this year and she experiences that very same thing, sometimes even worse.

However, not all naps are equally good. As explained by Dr. Mednick:

That's not to say that all naps are created equal. It all depends on which stages of sleep you're going through. The three most important stages are Stage 1, known as rapid-eye movement, or REM, and Stages 3 and 4, known as slow-wave sleep, when the brain is moving at a slower pace.

When they only got slow-wave sleep, their performance remained stable. But when their naps included REM and slow-wave sleep, it improved. A nap that includes equal parts of slow-wave sleep and REM sleep is the perfect nap, she added.

Suffice to say, I'd really recommend napping, it makes me feel good (recharged) and do better at my work.

Maybe the 40 percent of Americans who sleep less than seven hours a night (according to the National Sleep Foundation) will do to if they nap.

Source: UCSD News