Real men take naps

What?

In the last decade, a slew of research from various corners of the health and wellness sphere has emerged showing that our bodies are programmed to function optimally with a short afternoon nap. Not the least is the aforementioned Bill Anthony, whose campaign to promote napping at the workplace in The United States is chronicled by an article published in WebMD. Anthony, who famously keeps a couch in his Boston University office for taking naps, is preaching acceptance of the eschewed tradition of napping after lunch on the grounds that it “increases productivity, sharpens the senses and lifts the spirit” in an increasingly sleep-deprived US adult population.

The contention shouldn’t be lost on us load-shedding stricken Pakistanis, where many of us have begun to regard a full night of uninterrupted sleep as a luxury, particularly in the summers.

How come?

A recent publication in the Harvard Health Letter, Snoozing without guilt — a daytime nap can be good for health, affirms that the crucial role sleep plays in learning, memory and creative thinking can be extrapolated onto napping. They recommend plugging out for 20 to 30 minutes and encourage that employers should revise policies to tolerate and even encourage napping.

The findings are not new. Evidence in favour of napping appeared as far back as 1976, when a study came in from the American Psychological Association, showing that habitual afternoon naps contributed significantly to behavioural and psychological functions such as mood, arousal and reaction time. Nonetheless, most countries in the West continued to oppose the practice, and it even began to disappear in others such as Spain where it had been a cultural hallmark.

The Thunder

Fortunately, the thunder was yet to come. A six-year research-study led by one Dr Trichopoulos from the Harvard School of Public Health, who had been investigating the low incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean populations, found that the prevalence of an afternoon nap, or ‘siesta’, in these populations was the key; it was linked with an up to 37% reduced chance of dying from heart disease.

In fact, the effect was stronger than that of diet, exercise and smoking and extended onto other potentially fatal ailments. His team postulated that siesta induced a ‘stress releasing’ response in the individual, the effect of which was most pronounced for working men.

Ever since, napping has taken on a new face and gotten further credence. Documentaries such as The Secret Life of Your Body Clock have helped to augment the message, showing that humans have a ‘bi-circadian rhythm’, with one dip in arousal coming after midnight and a second after lunch time. Not surprisingly thus, the time people are most likely to die in a car crash is actually two o’ clock in the afternoon.

The Napping Club

Even if you dare to skip that nap and make it through just fine though, you’re still depriving yourself of your name being found in some very select company. As documented by an article in The Guardian, An afternoon nap is good for your health, that ‘power-nap’ has been a recurring theme in the repertoire of some of the most powerful men and women in history. In a long list of presidents and prime ministers, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher are two who were reportedly the fiercest in their loyalty to the afternoon snooze.

Maybe Mr R will make that list too.

Additional note:

For details on how to best tailor your power nap — the time, length and more — a good source would be Jennifer Ackerman, author of Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body. Her article Napping: the expert’s guide, also in The Guardian, breaks the nap down succinctly.

The author is the head of Scholars by Profession, a local research-initiative. Find out more at www.facebook.com/scholarsbyprofession/info

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2013.            

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