When a person feels sleepy at afternoon while working or studying, what choices will he make? There are two choices. One is to take a nap; the other is to avoid himself falling into sleep. Which will be better to him? In long term, taking a nap will be much better. There are several benefits of taking a nap. It can be divided into two parts; brain and body. Analyzing these will be better to understand. Also, the benefical way of taking a nap will be listed. .
There is a specific term for napping. The term Power Nap ' is a word made by Cornell University social psychologist James Maas; the maximum benefits are created with sleep vs. time. Not only this, there are various time for napping. The benefits of napping are proved in many researches.
"Napping may protect brain circuits from overuse until those neurons can consolidate what 's been learned about a procedure," says neuroscientist Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School. There was an investigation with college students were to take four kinds of test sessions during the day. Students without nap made a process on the work on the first session, but soon the scores went down suddenly on the other three sessions. Students who had 30-minute nap after finishing their second session had no change on the rest of the test. The students who took 1-hour nap showed improvement in their third and fourth sessions. This study tells that taking an 1-hour nap strengthens people 's using brain work. (http://www.sciencenews.org/20020601/fob6.asp)
It also lowers the coronary mortality (heart diseases) by about one third in people. The investigation was on Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Athens Medical School (UAMS) in Greece. The investigators watched at 23,681 people in Greece pure in coronary heart disease, stroke or cancer. The research took 6.3 years. The consequence of this viewed that people who had nap three times per week with 30 minutes had a 37% less
References: Definition of Power Nap from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap Example of research from Snooze Power: Midday nap may awaken learning potential Science News, Vol. 161, No. 22, , p. 341; Retrieved June 1, 2002. from http://www.sciencenews.org/20020601/fob6.asp Example of research from "Siestas of Health Adults and Coronary Mortality in the General Population," Androniki Naska, Eleni Oikonomou, Antonia Trichopoulou, Theodora Psaltopoulou, Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Archives of Internal Medicine, Retrieved Feb. 12, 2007 from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2007-releases/press02122007.html Example of five ways to take successful nap; Tips for Great Naps from http://longevity.about.com/od/sleep/a/napping_tips.htm