The nap is not wasted time. It allows to recover, to recharge, but it offers in addition many other advantages. What are the true virtues of a nap?
1 - Beneficial for the heart
Practiced regularly (at least 3 times a week), the nap would decrease the risk of cardiac accidents and cardiovascular diseases by about 30%. How to explain this effect? The nap decreases stress. Stress is an important cardiovascular risk factor.
2 - Stimulating effect
You should know that at the end of the nap, the body releases two hormones, adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones participate in waking because they stimulate the heartbeat, which allows a greater irrigation of the brain. In other words, the end of a nap has a stimulating effect. So after a nap we feel the energy needed for a second day. This phenomenon is also observed after a night of sleep, and that is why we generally feel at the best of our form about ten minutes after we get up.
3 - Stimulates creativity
The best ideas come after the naps. During the nap, our brain activity is less but not zero. Our unconscious works: we allow the expression and the projection of the images stored during the awakening. This phenomenon is more pronounced during a nap than during a night of sleep because the nap keeps us in a phase of lighter sleep, and more conducive to this type of inspirations.
4 - Good counselor
During this light sleep, it is also easier to remember unconscious solutions unconsciously envisaged by our brain. One can thus develop strategies that are remembered a few minutes later on waking (which is usually not possible after a night of sleep because it ends in a phase of dreams). This unconscious state offers the detachment necessary to apprehend the most thorny situations.
5 - Counteracts the negative effects of insufficient sleep
We are sleeping less and less and we are increasingly suffering from a lack of sleep. Inadequate sleep fatigue, stress, decreases concentration and attention, hinders the learning of children and adolescents, induces loss of productivity, increases the risk of diabetes, overweight, etc.
6 - Practicing a Nap
The nap does not require an important investment of time (10 to 30 minutes). For those who are in a hurry, you can even recommend micro siestas (a few minutes only), which you can do at your workplace, or even in public transport.
A nap does not prevent night sleep. Provided of course to take a nap in the early afternoon and not in the middle of the afternoon. On the contrary, a nap reduces stress and increases your productivity, which promotes night-time sleep.
1 - Beneficial for the heart
Practiced regularly (at least 3 times a week), the nap would decrease the risk of cardiac accidents and cardiovascular diseases by about 30%. How to explain this effect? The nap decreases stress. Stress is an important cardiovascular risk factor.
2 - Stimulating effect
You should know that at the end of the nap, the body releases two hormones, adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones participate in waking because they stimulate the heartbeat, which allows a greater irrigation of the brain. In other words, the end of a nap has a stimulating effect. So after a nap we feel the energy needed for a second day. This phenomenon is also observed after a night of sleep, and that is why we generally feel at the best of our form about ten minutes after we get up.
3 - Stimulates creativity
4 - Good counselor
During this light sleep, it is also easier to remember unconscious solutions unconsciously envisaged by our brain. One can thus develop strategies that are remembered a few minutes later on waking (which is usually not possible after a night of sleep because it ends in a phase of dreams). This unconscious state offers the detachment necessary to apprehend the most thorny situations.
5 - Counteracts the negative effects of insufficient sleep
We are sleeping less and less and we are increasingly suffering from a lack of sleep. Inadequate sleep fatigue, stress, decreases concentration and attention, hinders the learning of children and adolescents, induces loss of productivity, increases the risk of diabetes, overweight, etc.
6 - Practicing a Nap
The nap does not require an important investment of time (10 to 30 minutes). For those who are in a hurry, you can even recommend micro siestas (a few minutes only), which you can do at your workplace, or even in public transport.
A nap does not prevent night sleep. Provided of course to take a nap in the early afternoon and not in the middle of the afternoon. On the contrary, a nap reduces stress and increases your productivity, which promotes night-time sleep.
By : Isabelle Eustache
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