Sleeping is a great way to rejuvenate our lost energy. It helps us to gain our lost vigor back when we sleep. Most animals from the animal kingdom are polyphasic sleepers which means they sleep for small amounts of time through out the day. Humans, on the other hand, are monophasic sleepers which means we divide our day in two parts, one part for sleeping and another part for the rest of the day’s work. It is not very clear why the sleep pattern works that way for humans. Babies and old people generally nap a lot. And scientists are finding out more and more about the benefits of naps now and how it can increase the efficiency of people.
Our busy lives and increasing stress levels are making us increasingly sleep deprived. Even though napping cannot completely make up for our lack of sleep, but it can improve our mood and alertness. Napping is not a new concept, but rather people nowadays are becoming more aloof to that concept. When we were an agrarian society, our lives were not bound by a fixed schedule and it gave us a lot of liberty to plan our day how we wanted. Back in those times, an afternoon nap was a usual thing rather than an aloof concept.
Many of the great leaders that we had in our society were known for their love for afternoon naps. Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Napoleon, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan are some of those famous people who knew the value of a good afternoon nap.
Types Of Naps
Naps can be categorized into three different types.
1. Planned Naps
This is a type of napping which is taken before you get sleepy because you have to stay awake for something else later. It is a technique to sleep before one feels dizzy to ward off dizziness later.
2. Emergency Naps
This is the kind of nap that one takes when one is too sleepy to carry on with an activity. This is a very good way to rejuvenate when a person is very tired.
3. Habitual Naps
This is a type of nap that people usually take daily out of a habit at the same time of the day. Babies take similar naps everyday. Similarly, some people have a habit of taking naps everyday after lunch.
Science Says Naps Are Good
Many medical professionals believe that a nap of 15-20 minutes can increase alertness and can help in clearing a cluttered mind. Also, professionals believe that taking a nap before an important event can help people to work faster and with an increased amount of stability.
Many doctors believe that a brief midday rest is important for a person to work better. It is also believed that a nap of 60 minutes can help in restoring our memory. A nap of one and half hour can actually help in completing a sleep cycle which can enhance emotional memory along with creativity of a person.
Sometimes, a nap can leave people more tired. It happens because sometimes people can fall asleep in the deeper phase of sleep cycle and when they suddenly wake up they feel more tired than before. Scientists are looking to find more innovative ways of sleeping that can restore our mental and physical health in shorter span of time.
Japanese Companies Encourage Afternoon Naps
A heavy lunch comes with some drowsiness and it can reduce productivity in an office. More and more Japanese companies are recognizing that and many of them are encouraging their employees to take brief power naps to regain their productivity. This is a wonderful initiative that needs to be appreciated. Also, the companies have found out that productivity of their companies have increased after the initiative of afternoon naps were introduced. So, this can be a welcome change that the modern corporate world have been needing for a while.
Hopefully, more companies in coming future will follow the footsteps of Japan and introduce the same in their companies. Hopefully, napping is the way forward.
