The wonders of the harenap
Your eyes close and you doze off. Take a snooze, take a nap or have a snack: around an hour or two, this activity sounds like music to your ears. Still, the Dutch nap is not often on the schedule. Six reasons why you should doze off more often.
1. You feel fitter
An afternoon nap is not called a power nap for nothing. Twenty minutes is enough to refuel and feel less sleepy. After such a nap you can go back to it fresh. Not only do you fight fatigue with this, you also make sure that you feel better mentally. By closing your eyes for a while you boost your energy level and you go through life more cheerful and cheerful. Whether you actually fall asleep or rest and relax for 20 minutes, the positive effects remain the same, according to research. So stay still for a while.
2. You can concentrate better
American space agency NASA is a big proponent of the power nap. The Institute examined the correlation between performance and afternoon naps. After a 25-minute power nap, NASA employees were 54 percent more alert: they responded faster to questions and were able to oversee situations better than the employees who didn’t take an afternoon nap. Sleepers’ performance improved by as much as 34 percent.
In the meantime, afternoon naps are a regular part of the trainers and pilots’ daily schedule. It’s not crazy: by completely relaxing it is easier to focus on difficult assignments afterwards. After such a miracle sleep you go back to work concentrated and absorb your information better.
3. Your blood pressure drops
Do you suffer from high blood pressure? Greek doctors analyzed the siesta behavior of 386 men and women with high blood pressure. The people who napped during the day had an 11 percent lower heart rate and their blood pressure was 5 percent lower on average. The afternoon sleepers also generally had a healthier heart, meaning that they were at less risk of a heart attack. A daily nap can therefore possibly replace some of the medicines, according to the doctors of the Asklipieio Voula hospital.
4. You get a better memory
By dozing off for a while, you improve your thinking ability. test subjects those who slept for 100 minutes during the day performed better on memory tests afterward than those who had not slept beforehand. According to Harvard Medical School researchers Matthew Walker and Robert Stickgold, that’s because your nap time gives you time to organize knowledge. Your brain moves information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. In people who do not sleep, the short-term memory becomes overloaded and new information can no longer be accessed.
5. You are more creative
You may have already received the advice ‘sleep on it’. But if your creativity fails you on the day of the deadline, tomorrow’s ideas are of little use. Even then it is useful to take a nap during the day. Sleep makes you let go of what you’re doing while shaking your brain awake at the same time. Even before REM (deep sleep) is reached, people are better able to solve their problems. That appears from research by the English professor Richard Wiseman. So your power nap doesn’t have to take long at all to get the creative process going again.
6. You have less stress
Sleep is stress-reducing and by sleeping during the day you have less chance of a burnout, say the US National Institute of Mental Health. A short nap reduces feelings of irritation and frustration. Moreover, with an afternoon nap you give yourself time to sort out all the things. You stop your activities, put your body on a break and resume your rest. Problems that you dreaded before your nap can be solved with fresh eyes.
