Everyone has undoubtedly googled or questioned this subject at some point: how much afternoon nap is beneficial for an energy boost? Research has the solution.
An afternoon nap is a ritual and a state of mind in Spain and around the Mediterranean. After lunch and an obligatory cup of coffee, lying down to avoid the warmest hours is a custom “of the grandparents”. It harkens back to the rich days of unhurried living enjoyed during holiday times. It’s a fantasy for many, a cultural construct for others, and it’s still alive in places like Mexico and several Latin American countries.
People are frequently exhausted all the time nowadays, aided by the times of contemporary life that do not give much space for rest, and napping in the afternoon might be the remedy, except, but these are exceptions, they suffer from hormone abnormalities. A recent cross-sectional study from the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and Murcia in Spain found that determining how much afternoon nap is required needs paying close attention to the length of the afternoon nap. This is because it contributes to people’s metabolic health, and sleeping too much might have the opposite impact on rest in the long term.
How much napping in the afternoon is too much?
When there was no medicine, the only way to heal oneself was to sleep. Sleeping during the day is a habit to be cured and controlled, not demonised, because the benefits of an afternoon nap include increased cognitive and memory abilities, greater availability of energy during the day, and lower stress levels, thanks in part to the environments in which this habit develops. These favourable benefits are shown mostly in those over the age of 65, but even in students taking exams. In times of high stress, napping may be a winning strategy; the only variable to consider is how much to sleep in the afternoon.
Power naps, cat naps, and siestas are all different sorts of naps
Originally, there was the siesta, “the sixth hour of the day,” which, according to postwar Spanish custom, was a method to escape the warmest hours of the day between 2 and 4 p.m. and allow blood to flow from the brain to the stomach, akin to the Italian “nap.” In 1998, Professor James B. Maas invented the phrase “power nap,” which refers to a sleep lasting 10 to 20 minutes, in order to normalise the afternoon nap inside corporate work settings in order to improve employees’ performance skills. A catnap, on the other hand, lasts a little longer, perhaps 20 to 25 minutes, and its name is self-explanatory.
How much sleep is required in the afternoons?
To prevent snatching sleep from the night cycle, the 3,000-subject research mentioned above discovered that taking more than a 30-minute afternoon nap might be detrimental. So, yes to power naps and cat naps, but no two-hour siesta. Nap time specifically influences metabolic health, and individuals who sleep more than 30 minutes each day in the afternoon are more likely to have difficulties with metabolic syndrome, a complicated medical framework characterised by the coexistence of three conditions: diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. The study discovered that people who sleep for less than 30 minutes, or 15 or 20 minutes, had lower blood sugar, and lower blood pressure, and are not affected by metabolic syndrome.
It is also beneficial to consume coffee after lunch to help you wake up feeling more refreshed
Coffee after a meal, especially if bitter, is a terrific digestive help, but what does it have to do with how much sleep you get in the afternoon? Although it may have unpleasant side effects if you have gastroesophageal reflux, drinking a cup of coffee after lunch contributes to the proper functioning of the metabolism, particularly the action of caffeine about 20 minutes after intake, creating the ideal recipe for a restful and energising afternoon nap.
