Life Desk :
A recent study by the European Society of Cardiology corroborates the famed goodness of the good old power nap
I laud the European Society of Cardiology for their research on the afternoon nap an issue close to my heart. In my days as a resident in a busy teaching hospital, I of ten slept in the afternoon with no sleep at night. As I graduated to become a young consultant, I noticed that most of my seniors enjoyed an afternoon siesta. They started work early in the morning but between 2 pm and 4 pm, they were in the land of the nod. I slowly fell in line as well. A siesta is a short nap in the early afternoon after a midday meal, common in the Mediterranean region and in southern Europe. ‘Siesta’ is a Spanish word derived from the Latin word horasexta or the sixth hour counting from dawn. In the olden days in Goa, everything was closed in the afternoon. It was the same in Dubai.
Things have changed today and very few people indulge in an afternoon nap anymore.In Southern Italy, where most outlets used to be closed in the early part of the afternoon, the afternoon nap is called ripossa. Strangely, humans are the only mammals that are not polyphasic sleepers, which means that we do not sleep for short periods during the day. The National Sleep Foundation states that a short nap for 20 to 30 minutes improves alertness and performance and helps improve the heart, health and high blood pressure problems.
It is also claimed that an afternoon nap divides the day into two. One must here define an afternoon nap. A nap is a short sleep, of an average duration of 20 minutes but not longer than 90 minutes, taken between 1 pm and 3 pm usually. The Greeks used to call a nap medianos ipnos or sleep in the middle of the day and the Chinese call it hsiuhse. How long should a nap be then? A research in the journal Sleep defines 10 minutes as the best period for napping and if you nap longer than 30 minutes, it is likely that you will have sleep inertia or grogginess after waking up.
It is a changing world where people try and sleep less because they need to perform. I even know people who check their cell phones every time a ping goes off in the night. Sleep is necessary for proper human functioning. An experiment on rats, where they were attached to a machine that woke them up every time they fell asleep, elaborates on the necessity of sleep.
The sleep deprived rats lost weight and their fur developed an unhealthy tinge. Most of them were dead after a month. A six-year study at Harvard University examined 20,000 adults aged between 20 and 80 years. It was found that those that took a 30-minute nap at least three times a week had a 37 per cent lower risk of getting a heart disease. The shortest of naps have amazing effects on the memory and a 2008 study by the University of Dusseldorf enlightens us that between staying awake, taking a 40-minute nap and a six-minute nap, those who slept for six minutes were better in memory tests than the others.
The 40-minute sleepers came after them while the group that stayed awake came last. A Nasa study also tells us that pilots who napped for 25 minutes while their co-pilots took over were 35 per cent more alert than their counterparts. There is also a theory that napping improves creativity. The right side of the brain seems active during napping and this is associated with creativity.
I am not surprised that research at the European Society of Cardiology presented data from Athens and Greece at the meeting in London and stated that a regular midday nap lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of a heart attack. The study involved 386 people with the average age of 61 years.
Winston Churchil, Lyndon Johnson and Margaret Thatcher have been famous nappers while yours truly has been a lesser-known one.So join the league and get your power back with a power nap!
– Mumbai Mirror
A recent study by the European Society of Cardiology corroborates the famed goodness of the good old power nap
I laud the European Society of Cardiology for their research on the afternoon nap an issue close to my heart. In my days as a resident in a busy teaching hospital, I of ten slept in the afternoon with no sleep at night. As I graduated to become a young consultant, I noticed that most of my seniors enjoyed an afternoon siesta. They started work early in the morning but between 2 pm and 4 pm, they were in the land of the nod. I slowly fell in line as well. A siesta is a short nap in the early afternoon after a midday meal, common in the Mediterranean region and in southern Europe. ‘Siesta’ is a Spanish word derived from the Latin word horasexta or the sixth hour counting from dawn. In the olden days in Goa, everything was closed in the afternoon. It was the same in Dubai.
Things have changed today and very few people indulge in an afternoon nap anymore.In Southern Italy, where most outlets used to be closed in the early part of the afternoon, the afternoon nap is called ripossa. Strangely, humans are the only mammals that are not polyphasic sleepers, which means that we do not sleep for short periods during the day. The National Sleep Foundation states that a short nap for 20 to 30 minutes improves alertness and performance and helps improve the heart, health and high blood pressure problems.
It is also claimed that an afternoon nap divides the day into two. One must here define an afternoon nap. A nap is a short sleep, of an average duration of 20 minutes but not longer than 90 minutes, taken between 1 pm and 3 pm usually. The Greeks used to call a nap medianos ipnos or sleep in the middle of the day and the Chinese call it hsiuhse. How long should a nap be then? A research in the journal Sleep defines 10 minutes as the best period for napping and if you nap longer than 30 minutes, it is likely that you will have sleep inertia or grogginess after waking up.
It is a changing world where people try and sleep less because they need to perform. I even know people who check their cell phones every time a ping goes off in the night. Sleep is necessary for proper human functioning. An experiment on rats, where they were attached to a machine that woke them up every time they fell asleep, elaborates on the necessity of sleep.
The sleep deprived rats lost weight and their fur developed an unhealthy tinge. Most of them were dead after a month. A six-year study at Harvard University examined 20,000 adults aged between 20 and 80 years. It was found that those that took a 30-minute nap at least three times a week had a 37 per cent lower risk of getting a heart disease. The shortest of naps have amazing effects on the memory and a 2008 study by the University of Dusseldorf enlightens us that between staying awake, taking a 40-minute nap and a six-minute nap, those who slept for six minutes were better in memory tests than the others.
The 40-minute sleepers came after them while the group that stayed awake came last. A Nasa study also tells us that pilots who napped for 25 minutes while their co-pilots took over were 35 per cent more alert than their counterparts. There is also a theory that napping improves creativity. The right side of the brain seems active during napping and this is associated with creativity.
I am not surprised that research at the European Society of Cardiology presented data from Athens and Greece at the meeting in London and stated that a regular midday nap lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of a heart attack. The study involved 386 people with the average age of 61 years.
Winston Churchil, Lyndon Johnson and Margaret Thatcher have been famous nappers while yours truly has been a lesser-known one.So join the league and get your power back with a power nap!
– Mumbai Mirror
