We all love to take a nap during the day, but only a few are aware that napping actually reboots the brain.
The Wall Street Journal suggested several ways to plan and organize your sleep, in order to gain the most benefits.
According to experts, it is enough to nap for 15-2o minutes in order to clarify your mind and improve your alertness. Therefore, they advise a 15-20 minute nap before some important event in order to boost speed and stability.
Dr. Mednick suggests that at least one hour is needed to restore brain memory.
Additionally, he says that 90-minute nap is a complete cycle of sleep in fact, which will raise the emotional and procedural memory and enhance creativity.
However, sometimes you feel more tired after a nap than you were before, most often when the brain stores the steps in which you do something.
Dr. Michael Breus says that if the nap lasts more than half an hour, you enter a deep sleep phase and it is harder to get out of it, so when you get up, you are more exhausted than before.
On the other hand, modern life has brought numerous difficulties and people constantly lack time. This made scientists try to find a way to reduce the sleep duration but still gain rest and freshness.
They concluded that it is completely unnecessary to sleep more than 7 hours, and a nap of 20 minutes provides the needed energy and strength for the next 3-4 hours.
Furthermore, PubMed published a study which showed that a 5-10 minute nap is much better than no nap, as it enhances the cognitive abilities and alertness.
They found that napping has important health benefits, including:
Improves Learning And Memory
Prevents Stress
Improves mood
Increases Creativity
Supports Productivity
Boosts Alertness
In contrast, lack of sleep may lead to multiple health issues and illnesses, as follows:
Obesity
Depression
High blood pressure
Poor life quality
Heart failure
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Injury from accidents
Stroke
Fetal and childhood growth retardation
Heart failure or heart attack
Mental impairment
Consequently, napping provides important health benefits, so you should nap anytime you can. The following tips may also help you get the most out of it:
10-20 minute nap – for a quick recharge
60-90 minute nap – for a deeper sleep rejuvenation
You should be in a slightly sitting position while napping in order to avoid entering a phase of deep sleep.