Gabriela Brissette March 28, 2017

BE CAREFUL WITH
YOUR NAPS
The benefits and dangers of naps

Napping can be very harmful to your health and also very helpful. Usually, you feel
tired in the middle of the day and napping is the solution to that afternoon crash. Whether
you fell asleep accidentally laying in bed, or you plan to take a nap to help you get through
the rest of the day, naps are seen by many as essential. There are many factors that are
easily over seen that can come to play on whether or not happing is harmful for your health.
These factors are the time of day the nap is taken and the duration of the nap.

Premature death chances increased by 1/3 when British adults slept during the day-
time. There was a study done on 16,000 British men and women over 13 years whom gave
details on their sleeping habits. The participants told the researchers if they took daytime

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Gabriela Brissette March 28, 2017

naps and for how long. There was valuable findings on the individuals who took naps for
over an hour. Adults who nap every day are up to two-and-a-half times more likely to die
from respiratory illnesses than those who dont. Which sounds surprising because people
have considered naps to be completely harmless. Researchers said that this could be be-
cause napping triggers inflammation in the body. Who knew a craving a human body de-
mands would be so deadly to a person.

Researches have discovered a link between long naps and the risk of developing
chronic metabolic diseases. These researches reviewed 21 studies totaled of about
307,000 people. They found that those who napped for less than 40 minutes had a very
slim decrease in the risk of metabolic syndrome. Although there was a significant correla-
tion between the individuals that napped for longer than 40 minutes. Actually, those who
nap for more than 90 minutes had a higher chance of 50 percent for developing metabolic
syndrome. About one-third of American adults do not get enough sleep, according to the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This explains the importance of those
people to get their 20 to 30 minute naps.

Gholipour explains how the durations of naps have dierent aects on the body. In
the study, the researchers looked at 27,000 retired Chinese men and women, and catego-
rized them into four groups based on their nap duration, ranging from zero minutes to more
than 60 minutes. They separated more than 2-thirds of the participants which was 18,500
people and had them taking regular afternoon naps. It was evidently concluded that the
18,500 people had a higher risk of pre-diabetes and diabetes. Of course the confounding
factors were adjusted and were not taken into play.

Many people believe that nappings only drawback is the disruption of nighttime
sleep. It is very common for busy people to get a midday sluggish feeling in the early after-
noons. This sluggish feeling is usually overcome by caeine or getting a better nights sleep.
Which method is the best option?

British researchers did experiments on caeine, nap taking, and more nighttime
sleep. The best method the afternoon was coped with was a nap. In desperate needs of
alertness drinking caeine and then taking a short nap immediately is the optimal method.
A small Japanese studies published this but this approach is not the most valid. the mere
suggestion of caeine, in the form of coee taste or smell, wakes us up. Regardless of the
exact timing, you need to coordinate caeine intake with your nap. . Timing caeine intake
is very important. The timing of the nap is also very crucial to how it will aect your body.

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Gabriela Brissette March 28, 2017

University of Pennsylvania observed and studies 3,000 elderly Chinese people to see their
performance on mental ability tests.The scientists discovered that the people who took a
nap after lunch had a way better result on the experiment tests in comparison to those who
did not sleep during the day. This study suggests that absence of napping and too much
napping are associated with poorer cognition, but naps of a moderate duration are associ-
ated with better cognition and may be an important part of optimizing cognition in elderly
adults.. Their findings supported the hypothesis that a moderate-duration nap taken during
the post-lunch dip is associated with overall better cognition. Their results was published in
the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. If you are in desperate needs for a nap, take a
nap that lasts no longer than 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. Make sure to time
your nap, in order to avoid that groggy post-nap feeling.

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