Why a 15-minute sleep can give you a good health

Sleep is one of the most favorite pastimes of many. It is the easiest and healthiest way of relaxing from a stressful day of work. However, some of us want to indulge in it more than the recommended 8 to 10 hours of sleep, which is not good. Researchers behind medical scrubs uniforms noted that oversleeping is associated to depression, low socioeconomic status and other health problems. Meanwhile the case of an afternoon nap is different, medical experts say; it is a healthy means of energizing your body in a natural way.

Power nap as everyone calls it, is usually a habit of babies and children. However, according to researchers, our body was designed to take a siesta even though we’ve slept the required eight hours sleep. No one can turn down an afternoon sleep since our body craves for it, which is normal. This mid-day napping can reduce the stress and improve performance or productivity. Hence, it is giving you more benefits such as less stress, better reaction time, good health, more patience and increased learning.

A study conducted by Greek sleep researchers found out that people who usually took a 30-minute siesta for at least thrice a week had lower risk in any heart disease or even heart-related death because their stress level is reduced.
In fact, it is known that countries where a siesta is parts of culture have lower rates of heart diseases, however, studies revealed that there are mixed results.

Nevertheless, aside from lowering your risk in any heart related disease or death, an afternoon nap can also make you more productive and improve your performance. It is normal for us to pine for a midday siesta, although we completed the required snooze hours. Just remember, your body is designed to do that.

An afternoon nap can also fill up the missed sleeps we had for the day. A 20 minute sleep can offer 20 minutes more morning sleep, although the last two hours of morning sleep have benefits to provide. Experts advised that siesta should be made 15 to 30 minutes only as sleeping more than this can get you to a deeper sleep.

Here are some tips that will help you to have a more effective power nap:

• Avoid too much dosage of a caffeine or better, avoid it. Caffeine is a stimulant that helps to make us a little energetic or lively. However, more of this can disrupt sleep.

• Set an alarm clock. This will help if you don’t want to have a long sleep. It will also give you a discipline regarding your sleeping and waking up habit.

• Meditate. If you’re not in the mood to have an afternoon nap, or you’re too busy to do it, you can do some simple meditations, which allow your body to rest and gives the similar result in having a mid-day sleep.