Daytime nap 'is as refreshing as a night's sleep'

Daily Telegraph - UK ^ | June 23, 2003 | David Derbyshire

[Mister Magoo]

Daytime nap 'is as refreshing as a night's sleep' By David Derbyshire

Filed: 23/06/2003

Power naps, the post lunch snoozes advocated by Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and George W Bush, can be as refreshing as a good night's sleep, according to a study.

Scientists have shown that a 60- to 90-minute siesta can charge up the brain's batteries as much as eight hours tucked up in bed. But in order to get the full benefit, dozers need to spend some of that time dreaming, the study found.

The findings come from psychologists at Harvard University, who tested the visual learning ability of volunteers.

The tests, which involved watching and then recalling the position of bars on a computer screen, were carried out at 9am and 7pm, and again at 9am the following day.

Test scores of volunteers not allowed to sleep during the day fell by the evening of the first day. But the reaction times of people who took a 60- to 90-minute sleep during the day improved in the evening, the researchers report in Nature Neuroscience.

Short naps only worked when they included two kinds of sleep - slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The two kinds of sleep are categorised by different brainwave patterns and are thought to help the brain rehearse and process new skills and information learnt during the day.

The scientists, led by Dr Sara Mednick, said: "From the perspective of behavioural improvement, a nap is as good as a night of sleep for learning on this perceptual task."

Power naps also added to the benefits of a good night's sleep. Volunteers who took a nap on the first day of the experiment were 50 per cent better at remembering the task 24 hours later than the non nappers. Last year a study found that men were more likely to take power naps than women.

[strela]

I take a short siesta (about an hour) instead of lunch nowadays. It has completely eliminated the "3 O'clock Droop" I used to suffer, and I can work late into the night then awake refreshed the next day.

[Eagle Eye]

I want to die in my sleep like my great grandfather did,

Not kicking and screaming like his passengers did.

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

Well all I've got to say about that is:

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz

[Lancey Howard]

IMHO you need a longer bed ;-)

Oh, I have a nice big long bed, but I sleep on my belly and I prefer that my feet hang over the end. So I just scooch down a little.

I take my sleep very seriously.