While for many people the nap it is something almost religious and sacred, for many others it is a utopia. This rest is not a harmful habit for people. On the contrary, if it is done at a certain time and time, it can favor attention, learning and good mood. What do scientists have to say about this?
In dialogue with the UNQ science news agency, Malen Moyanobiotechnologist at the National University of Quilmes, says: “Since we woke up, the sleep pressure. To dissipate it is necessary to go to sleep, which happens in the next sleep cycle, which is usually at night. It’s like imagining a curve that is growing, and the earlier the morning comes, the higher the curve reaches at a time that is usually after noon.
Per Apartment SantiagoPhD in Basic and Applied Sciences from the UNQnapping “can serve to compensate for deficiencies in nighttime sleep and is particularly useful as a preventive measure in people who work rotating or night shifts to combat daytime sleepiness and increase alertness, improve mood and performance”.
What is the ideal time for a nap?
Although there is no specific time, since the nap must be adapted to the person’s context, Moyano suggests that it is best to do it between 1pm and 3pm so as not to disturb your night sleep. “If we’re going to take a nap at five in the afternoon, it’s probably going to be harder for us to fall asleep that night,” says the biotechnologist and Conicet fellow at the Sleep and Memory Laboratory at the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires.
In turn, Plano adds that “the ideal is to always listen to the body and take a nap when we need itwhen sleep pressure builds up in our system and we need sleep.”
How long should the nap last?
In the adult population, the recommendation is to take short naps that vary between 15 and 45 minutes. According to Moyano, this rest “promotes cognitive performance, alertness and mood”.
In turn, Santiago Plano, assistant researcher at Conicet at the Biomedical Research Institute, points out that there is a type of nap called powerful nap: “Consisting of short naps that can range from six to 30 minutes in a controlled environment, free from light and noise, which allows for an ideal rest to recharge your energies”.
In this sense, the research of Aylin Vazquez Chenlo, a bioengineer at the Sleep and Memory Laboratory of the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires, shows that taking a 20-minute nap after learning a task improves memory, even if tested a week later.
take care of sleep
“If you feel like you’re getting little sleep at night, a nap is not going to replace that sleep.. Sleep doesn’t recover, which is why you have to take care of it,” says Moyano. Along these lines, the Plan emphasizes that “the rest you get at night is not the same as a nap. We are daytime animals and our biological clock sets our body to sleep at night. Night sleep is of better “quality”, it allows us to rest and recover better. In addition, there are several physiological processes that occur during the sleep phase that only occur at night and not during a nap.”.