If you’re like most Americans, you probably consider napping
an indulgence.
What you may not realize: Napping
is widely known to sharpen mental fitness (including memory), and
it also confers significant overall health benefits.
Important finding: When
researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the
University of Athens Medical School recently followed about 23,000
healthy Greek adults (average age 53), they found that study
participants who napped at least 30 minutes three times a week or
more were 37% less likely to die from heart disease and stroke over
a six-year period.
How to get the greatest health benefits from napping...
IT’S TIME TO NAP!
Humans are biologically programmed to nap. Our bodies experience a
slight drop in physiological processes such as body temperature,
blood pressure and the secretion of digestive juices (at around 2
pm for people who awaken at 8 am) -- similar to the larger dips
that occur at night. These drops signal the body that it’s time to
sleep.
There’s strong scientific evidence showing that people who nap
are more alert, make better decisions, score significantly higher
on creativity and memory tests and have better motor function after
napping compared with people who don’t nap.
Surprising fact: Despite the
popular notion that lunch makes people sleepy due to the digestion
process, research shows that it’s actually the body’s temperature
drop that is responsible. This temperature drop occurs whether or
not you eat lunch.
Why napping provides so many
benefits: Napping just 20 minutes is enough time
for restorative processes that occur during sleep to take
place.
THE RIGHT -- AND WRONG -- WAY TO NAP
Here are my five secrets for getting the most from your naps --
and some common mistakes to avoid...
SECRET 1. Make a 20-minute nap part of your daily
routine, like exercising and brushing your teeth.
Common mistake: Squeezing in a
nap whenever you can.
My recommendation: Take a nap at
the same time every day (even if you don’t feel sleepy) so that
your body adjusts to falling asleep then. Because most Americans
have trained themselves to not nap, the instinct needs to be
relearned.
The ideal time to take a nap from a biorhythm standpoint is six
hours after awakening for the day.
Example: If you usually wake up
at 7 am, your best napping time will be around 1 pm.
Of course, your exact nap time may depend on your daily
activities. Just don’t nap within three hours of your bedtime.
SECRET 2. Choose a comfortable, quiet
place where you won’t be disturbed.
Common mistake: Napping in your
living area at home or in an office at work. Even if you’re not
disturbed by noise or other interruptions, you will still feel the
emotional tug of your daily activities.
My recommendation: Go to a place
unrelated to daytime tasks, such as your bedroom, an empty
conference room, a park or your car with the seat reclined and the
window slightly cracked so that you get some fresh air.
Also, try earplugs if you have trouble drifting off to sleep. Or
consider using a white-noise machine to block out distracting
sounds.
New option: The Apple iPhone
White Noise App is very effective at blocking out noise.
SECRET 3. Cover yourself with a light blanket or jacket,
if possible. This will make you more comfortable
because your body temperature is lower than usual while
napping.
Common mistake: Many people think
that they need to be in a darkened room to nap. This may not be
true. Research being conducted at the University of California, San
Diego’s sleep laboratory has found no effect from different levels
of light on a person’s ability to nap.
Possible reason: Since napping
appears to be programmed into us, we may have evolved to fall
asleep for brief periods during daylight without a need
for melatonin, the sleep hormone that the body
produces only in darkness.
SECRET 4. Set an alarm to go off after 20
minutes. Use whatever is most convenient -- an alarm
on your watch or cell phone, for example. The Nap App on the Apple
iPod functions as an alarm that awakens nappers with a tone or
vibration.
Using an alarm will prevent you from napping too long. It also
allows you to relax, because you won’t have to worry about the
clock.
Interesting fact: Even when
nappers thought they were awake throughout their nap times,
researchers’ anecdotal observations have shown that the nappers
usually did dip into light sleep, which can help with alertness and
motor performance.
Common mistake: Napping for more
than 30 minutes. These longer naps take you from light "Stage 2"
sleep into deeper "Stage 3" and "Stage 4" sleep, which are harder
to wake up from and will leave you groggy.
My recommendation: If you would
like to take a longer nap, make sure that it lasts for 60 to 90
minutes. That’s long enough to move through the deeper sleep stages
and return to lighter Stage 2 and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep --
also known as "dreaming sleep."
This type of longer nap has the added benefit of stimulating the
brain regions that integrate newly learned information into your
long-term memory.
New finding: In a recent study
conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, 39 healthy
adults were given a rigorous learning exercise at noon. Half of
them then took a 90-minute nap at 2 pm, while the other half
didn’t. When doing new exercises at 6 pm, the group that had napped
did significantly better than those who did not nap.
SECRET 5. Go back to sleep for five minutes if you feel
groggy from over-napping. If you’re groggy, this
means that you have moved into the deeper stages of sleep. Going
back to sleep for five minutes will allow you to move further out
of those sleep stages.
If you find that you’re groggy after a 20-minute
nap: Shorten your nap to 10 minutes to avoid
progressing into deeper sleep.
WHEN NAPPING MAY MEAN TROUBLE
Even though the bulk of research has found that napping is a
healthful practice, one widely publicized study found the opposite
-- specifically, that older women who take excessive daily naps are
more likely to die.
The study subjects (age 69 and older) who died napped the
longest (more than three hours daily). They were 44% more likely to
die from any cause and 58% more likely to die from cardiovascular
causes than those who did not report taking naps.
The details of the research results suggest that the study
participants had underlying sleep disorders, such as obstructive
sleep apnea (temporary cessation of breathing during sleep) or an
illness such as depression or heart disease.
Key fact not widely reported: The
same study found that women who napped three hours or less per week
had no increased mortality.
In addition, those who slept nine to 10 hours per 24-hour period
(overnight sleep plus naps) were at greater risk of dying than
those who slept eight to nine hours total in the same time period.
Researchers are unsure whether these findings would also apply to
men.
My advice: If you’re sleeping
excessively at night, consult a sleep doctor, who will place you on
a strict sleep schedule that will not include
napping.