How Napping Affects Your Brain, Creativity And Health

     Most people ignore the benefits of napping even though it is only one hour. In fact, napping is a sort of relaxation for the body after doing various activities besides relaxing strained nerves due to the activities.
Of course, if you do suffer from insomnia, napping probably is not good for you because it will keep you awake at night. For those who want to take the benefits of it, napping is recommended because it is good for your health. There are some benefits of nap taking you can get from it. Some experts from Mayo Clinic said that napping is good to reduce fatigue, maintain a good mood, and sharpen the mind. Another research conducted by the Harvard Health also showed that people who used to nap have a sharper mind than those who don’t. A study reported in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine in 2007 also said that regular nap can lower the risk of death from heart disease by 37%. Just 15 – 20 minutes of napping is just enough, according to Sara C. Mednick, Ph.D. the author of Taking a Nap! Change Your Life. You can recharge, regain your alertness and increase your motor performance, she said. Such things are needed by people to get an energy boost which is best done between 1 pm - 3 pm. Napping during these hours will not influence your ability to sleep at night. Napping gives lots of benefits in order to improve your memory of concentration and creativity and boost your health.

     The first benefit of napping is to improve your memory. This happens because taking some sleep in the afternoon can rest your mind and improve your memory. 20 minutes of napping helps improve your concentration. This happens because your brain needs rest. If your blood circulation is running smoothly, then your brain will automatically improve your learning power since it makes your brain relaxed. If you do this routinely, your mind will freshen up and it will boost your energy.

     Secondly, napping can increase your creativity. This is achieved if you take a nap for 90 minutes. Sleeping is imperative in order to reach new insights and be able to see new creative solutions to old problems. The creativity comes from letting our minds wander along tangents and into seemingly unrelated areas. Sleeping removes the blinders and helps “reset” your brain to look at things from a different perspective, which is crucial to creativity. In other words, you are likely more creative after sleep. By the time you are asleep, the left side of your brain takes some time off to relax while the right side is improving its ability to pushing information into long-term storage and solidifying your memories from the day. The right side of the brain is far more active during a nap than the left side, which makes your concentration increased. Particularly, a single nap of daytime can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.

     Lastly, taking a nap can improve your health. In fact, nappers have a 4 percent lower blood pressure when they were awake and a 6 percent lower while they slept at night than people who did not nap. Dr. Kallistratos said that although the reductions seemed low, even modest reductions could cut the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, by up to 10 percent. But not all of the people can get nap mostly people who work in an office. There is some business brand who allowing their staff to take nap such as Nike, Google, and British Airways. In some country, for instance, China and Japan, taking nap becomes a tradition. In China, colleagues have desk pillow so they can nap at work, sitting at their desk head and pillow propped comfortably on their keyboards. In Japan, nearly half of elementary school students hit the lights before 10 p.m. on school nights, and 85% before 11 p.m. Napping can also decrease stress. In this case, your body is going to relax and taking a break from activities that you are doing. Try to have a nap wherever you are. For example, if you having so many works to do and your boss is grumpy and your about to working all night long, try to get some sleep to rest that thought for a while. This will relax your mind for a while and give you some energy so you can work overnight without getting drowsy. Taking nap also lose your weight. By taking sleep, your body will increase lepton, that is a hormone to control your hunger so you don’t feel like eating a lot and you’ll feel less hunger. If you have lost weight, it can decrease the risk of getting heart attack too. Furthermore, by taking a nap you relieve stress and other problems, you will not think about your problems so much anymore.

     To sum up, taking nap gives you many profits for your health. Taking nap can increase your energy, brain function, and also health.  For most people,  napping can reduce your fatigue, improve your mood and alertness and as a consequence improve you performance. However, for some people who have night time sleep problems (insomnia) or who can’t sleep during the day, napping may not be recommended. They might worsen their nighttime or might feel disoriented after waking up from a nap.


By Aisyah