CHARBONNEAU – Short naps have long benefits

I CONFESS that I have a daily nap.

I admit that reluctantly because sleeping midday has a bad reputation. In our culture, it indicates sloth and indolence.

Siestas are common throughout the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, the Middle East, mainland China, the Indian subcontinent and, as a result of Spanish influence, most of Latin America and the Philippines.

But not in North America, Mexico excepted.

Our puritanical roots and the Protestant Work Ethic emphasise  diligence, discipline, frugality and not giving in to our body rhythms.

The U.S. government issued a statement in 2019 reinforcing a long held policy:

“GSA is issuing this bulletin to reaffirm the fact that all persons are prohibited from sleeping in federal buildings, except when such activity is expressly authorised by an agency official.”

It’s only natural to feel drowsy in the afternoon as our body temperature drops briefly due to a change in our circadian rhythms.

To an observer, sleeping and napping may look like the same thing. They are not.

In an analysis of napping done in 2022, researchers at the Center for Sleep and Cognition at the National University of Singapore found significant improvements in certain kinds of memory, information-processing speed and vigilance (the ability to respond to an unexpected event, say, a swerving car).

After a short nap, I wake up refreshed.  Beyond the cognitive benefits, a  nap  simply makes you  feel better. “No one talks about mood enough,” says researcher Michael Chee. Tired people tend to be grumpy people.

When napping, I’m sometimes not even aware that I actually dozed off. A clue is that I become aware that I’ve been dreaming — more of a microdream than a full-fledged one.

Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation may disagree, but the brief dip into the unconscious is similar to the one I achieve with TM. When napping, I sometimes use the mantra that I learned from TM.

The effect of napping is quite different than sleeping. While a short nap of 20 to 30 minutes is refreshing, falling asleep leaves you groggy.

Longer sleep times can place you into deeper sleep and result in “sleep inertia,” that fuzzy-headed  feeling on waking. Even if the grogginess passes quickly, many people find it unpleasant.

However, Sometimes falling asleep, instead of napping, is an indication of an underlying condition.

Sleeping in the day can be associated with health problems. Physiologist Marta Garaulet of the University of Murcia in Spain studied 3,000 otherwise healthy Europeans. Garaulet and her colleagues found that those who slept for more than 30 minutes were 23 percent more likely to be obese than those who didn’t lie down at all.

Sleepers were also more likely to have a combination of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other health issues. In addition, sleeping reduced their ability to lose fat on a diet.

My analogy may not be perfect but I argue that since we don’t eat just once a day, why would we sleep just once a day?

Come on, everyone, let’s nap. With all the vitriol seething in the land, we could use fewer grumpy people.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.