Forget what you might have heard in the past about naps. For those who respond well to naps (and who learn the ropes to perfecting this art), naps can provide a wealth of rewards that go beyond just you feel better and able to tackle the rest of your day.

Naps have been shown scientifically to benefit almost every aspect of human wellness from the physical rewards of lowering your risk for heart disease and repairing cells to the more obvious ones of lifting your mood and stamina, knocking down stress, and making you more productive. Because naps can improve heart functioning, support hormonal maintenance, and encourage cell repair, they can help you live longer, stay more active, and look younger.

These benefits, of course, are what nocturnal sleep is for, so the purpose of a nap is to plunge you into and out of rejuvenating sleep as fast as possible. By doing so, you tap into these benefits during the day instead of having to wait until nighttime to recoup them. MRIs of nappers have shown that brain activity stays high throughout the day with a nap; without one, it declines as the day wears on.

The brain is the part of the body most affected by a nap, which is evidenced by a greater alertness, improved memory retention, and enhanced ability to think creatively and insightfully. By sharpening your motor skills and neuromuscular coordination, napping can make you better at just about anything you do, from dancing and playing the piano to driving a car, making quick decisions, responding to stimuli or danger, exploring the Internet, and typing frantically on a computer or a BlackBerry.

Psychologist Dr. Sara C. Mednick, a scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, has been leading the way in conducting napping research, publishing convincing data with colleagues at Harvard University, among others, on the value and benefits of napping. Collectively, recent findings among the top nap researchers are demonstrating just how naps enhance information process and learning. In a nutshell, napping has been shown to:

• Improve a person’s capacity to learn certain tasks, and
• Reverse information overload by protecting brain circuits overuse until those neurons can consolidate what’s already been learned.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 6:31 am and is filed under Insomnia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.