You’re not alone if you frequently find yourself dozing off at your desk in the middle of the day, or driving with your windows down in the hopes that the fresh air would keep you alert on your trip home. The American Sleep Association conducted the study, and the results are in: America is a sleep-deprived country. Naps during the day may be the answer.
According to the American Sleep Association, more than 35% of adults in the United States get less than the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night, and 50 to 70 million adults have a sleep disorder.
Daytime Naps Are Beneficial
Sleep is essential for the proper functioning of your brain as well as many other crucial bodily functions. Little sleep deprivation may appear to be a minor issue, but even a minor lack of sleep can add up over time and have major effects for your health.
One reason for this is that persistent sleep deprivation is related with increased sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system activity. This mechanism is useful when exercising or rushing to catch a bus, but persistent activation causes chronic stress in your body. This can disrupt your metabolic and circadian rhythm, resulting in chronic systemic inflammation.
Diabetes and cardiovascular disease, arthritis, general bodily pain, depression and anxiety, gastrointestinal disorders, weight gain, and recurrent infections are all linked to chronic inflammation.
Sleep deprivation can also cause emotional disorders, memory, cognitive, and performance deficiencies, and lower overall quality of life in otherwise healthy adults.
Naps Might Be the Answer
Most of us had given up on the midday nap by the time we graduated from preschool, but health experts are now saying that the childhood habit may be beneficial to adults as well. Getting a full night’s sleep is nearly difficult for many Americans, but incorporating a nap into your daily routine could have far-reaching health advantages.
Daytime Naps Are Beneficial to Your Brain
Many of the world’s brightest minds and most prominent leaders, including Albert Einstein and Sir Winston Churchill, were known to nap on a regular basis, and studies have shown that a sixty to ninety-minute nap can be just as useful to your brain as a full night’s sleep.
A Harvard University study from 2010 discovered that even a short snooze might increase your memory and learning ability.
Naps Benefit Your Heart
Researchers discovered that persons who napped even twice a week had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD events in a study published in the BMJ Journal, Heart. Participants in the study were mainly healthy individuals aged 35 to 75, and they were followed for five years.
At that time, 155 cardiac incidents occurred. Those who napped at least twice a week had a 48% lower risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure than those who did not nap at all, according to the researchers.
They did not, however, discover a relationship between nap duration and the risk of a CVD event, suggesting that even a brief nap could be beneficial to your heart.
The findings were discussed by Yue Leng, Ph.D., and Dr. Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco.
“Although the precise physiological processes linking daytime napping to [cardiovascular disease] risk are unknown,” they wrote. “[This study] adds to the current discussion about the health implications of napping by implying that it may not only be the duration, but also the frequency, that matters.”
Napping During the Day May Help Decrease Stress
According to Bill Anthony, an American psychologist and head of the Harvard University Mental Rehabilitation Institute, sleeping helps to considerably lower cortisol, the stress hormone.
The cause for this is related to your previously mentioned sympathetic nervous system. This fight-or-flight reaction evolved in order for early humans and other mammals to respond quickly to life-threatening situations. Sadly, in today’s modern world, your body can overreact to non-life threatening conditions such as a traffic jam, a work crisis, or family stress and activate this system.
When your brain detects stress, it releases epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into your bloodstream. As a result, cortisol is released to keep your body revved up and on high alert. This is advantageous when sprinting away from a bear, but it might have serious health repercussions if your body remains in this state on a regular basis.
Superior to Coffee
There are numerous other advantages to napping on a regular basis. A little nap in the middle of the day can boost your alertness and reaction time, make you less impulsive, and increase your tolerance for irritation.
“Frustration tolerance is one aspect of emotion regulation,” explains Jennifer Goldschmied, a doctorate student at the University of Michigan. “I believe sleeping offers us more distance [from an emotional experience] – it’s not just a matter of time passing.”
An afternoon nap has also been found to improve perceptual learning (such as while taking a word-recall test) and memory consolidation better than caffeine.
How to Maximize the Benefits of Your Daytime Nap
Not everyone has time for a ninety-minute nap in the middle of the day, but even a short slumber can provide benefits. Most experts agree that no more than twenty to thirty minutes is required unless you are sleep deficient, and that much more may leave you feeling groggy or interfere with your nocturnal sleep.
It is also vital to consider the timing of your nap. Napping after three o’clock in the afternoon may interfere with your capacity to sleep that night, so try to do it early in the afternoon. To sleep better, try to find a calm, dark room with a comfortable temperature and less stimulation.
Finally, once you’ve finished napping, give yourself a few minutes to wake up before attempting anything that requires a quick response. Much like when you first wake up in the morning, you may require some time to get completely alert.
