Need a reason to take a nap in the afternoon? Well read on!
Naps are a part of many culture around the world and its time America starts to take on this habit too.
There have been numerous studies on the benefit of napping both short and long term.
So the next time you need to justify to yourself to take that nap for a few minutes, remember this article that discusses how it’s normal in most countries and the benefits that come with a nap!
It turns out we need a nap during the afternoon. And historically, it seems we’ve always needed one. There is the Spanish concept of siesta. Italians call it riposo. If you go to China, you are likely to have many businesses shut down between 11:30 – 2:00 pm. They take a combination lunch and siesta before going back to work. Americans used to call it a power nap, but the research world calls this a nap zone.
We now know that a nap can profoundly influence productivity during the day. Mark Rosekind, a researcher who used to work for NASA – his job was training pilots – actually did an experiment. He allowed his pilots to take a 26-minute nap, then measured their productivity. He found that productivity increased 34% if he allowed his charges to take a nap. He has a really great quote “What other management strategy will improve people’s performance 34% in just 26 minutes?” he is famous for saying.
The research world calls this the nap zone. Other benefits have been found, mostly related to changes in memory performance. Both declarative and procedural memory tasks improve if you take a regular nap. One paper has the delightful title – and remember, this is a research paper “Good sleep, bad sleep! The role of daytime naps in healthy adults.
