Why naps are great for you

I'm not a napper. This goes way back to when I was a toddler. My Mom would force me up into my room every day after lunch. Once I could hear her back downstairs, I would proceed to take everything out of every drawer and closet and play with it for 2 hours until she would come up the stairs to check on me sitting amidst a mess so large that I'm not sure why she persisted with this exercise day after day. I guess I must have been so horrible to be around that she would have rather cleaned up the mess than deal with me for the 2 hours that I was supposed to be napping.

Fast forward to college at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1995, I would take a nap anywhere I could. We spent so much of the day either studying, learning, doing pushups, or for me, playing basketball, that I would take a nap anywhere: at my desk, in a corner of the library, on the floor of any place that had... a floor, during lectures, during dinner. If it was possible to nap during a nap, I think I would have. It was survival. These naps never did amount to much time asleep, I usually only had about 15 minutes of free time but I would take advantage of what is called "the power nap".

These days, I associate a nap with weakness. There are so many more productive things that I can always be doing. I usually grab a cup of coffee and press on through my life. Well today, I broke down. It's Sunday. My kids are occupied. There is a beautiful breeze blowing through the house and quite frankly I'm tired AF after a long week, so I took a nap. I took a 2 hour nap! This might be the only 2 hours I have been asleep outside of bedtime in about 10 years. Because this is such an unusual occurrence, I looked into it.

Of course, where does anyone go for information... science? the medical community? THE GOOGLE!!!! Here is what I learned from the almighty GOOGLE:

1. Naps will increase your patience. According to researchers at the University of Michigan, who published a study recently in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, participants in this experiment were asked to complete a the frustrating task of drawing geometric designs on a computer screen. The participants who took an hour-long nap before the exercise were able to draw for 90 seconds, compared to a control group who watched a nature documentary instead of napping. The control group gave up after 48 seconds.

2. It will lower your blood pressure. In fact, one British study found that participants blood pressure dropped just in anticipation of a nap.

3. It helps you remember more. A study conducted in Germany found that taking an hourlong nap can dramatically improve memory. In this study, participants were asked to remember specific words and pairs. Half the participants watched a DVD while the other half napped. When asked about their memory of the words, the nappers remembered 5 times as many words.

4. The power nap. This nap that can be for as little as 10 minutes, is also beneficial in that improves your mood even if you didn't actually fall asleep. Just laying down and resting can make you less bitchy! Win! Short naps also aid in helping your memory.

5. A nap reduces the risk of heart disease. Those who take a nap at least three times a week are 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease. Working men are 64 percent less likely, according to a 2007 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

6. Did you know that napping is more useful than coffee for getting over the mid-day slump? Tell that to your boss!

7. Naps make you happier. Scientific evidence from the University of Hertfordshire performed a study of over 1,000 participants. 66% of those who took short naps (30 minutes or less) during the day reported feeling greater overall happiness than those who took longer naps (over 30 minutes), or no naps at all.

8. You will prevent mental burnout. According to a news release from The National Institutes of Health, a nap can reverse information overload and protect your brain from mental burnout. Subjects who took a 30-minute nap after after performing two of four visual task sessions on a computer prevented extended deterioration of their performance, while a one-hour nap actually boosted their performance in remaining sessions.

Tips for having a great nap:

*Find a quiet and comfortable place, it doesn't have to be your bed.
*20-30 minutes is the sweet spot for having a good nap and not waking up groggy.
*Try to nap at the same time every day to keep up with your circadian rhythms.
*Use a blanket. When you sleep, your metabolism falls, your breathing rate, and your body temperature drops slightly.
*Turn off the lights. Darkness acts as a cue for our bodies that it is time to go into chill out mode.

So maybe I won't feel so guilty next time I start to feel a little bit tired during the middle of the day. Maybe every once in a while I will opt for that nap rather than that next cup of coffee!

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