The Power of a Good Nap

Jennifer Purdie
byJennifer Purdie
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The Power of a Good Nap

我们都知道身体需要睡觉,但是一天中几个小时,也许休息的夜晚的沉睡成为您切掉的第一件事。但是很快,这会使您失望,并影响您在最佳水平上锻炼的能力。

If this describes you, you are not alone. A lack of sleep remains a widespread issue. “TheU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionconsiders inadequate sleep a public health problem,” says Jamie Gruman, PhD, author of “Boost: The Science of Recharging Yourself in an Age of Unrelenting Demands.” In 2011, the CDC even started calling inadequate sleep an epidemic, as 1/3 of U.S. adults report they get less sleep than they should.

所以,你可以做什么?输入:小睡。通过花一点时间睡觉,您可以醒来刷新并提高生产力。即使您认为中午休息是浪费时间,您也可能会对它的好处感到惊讶。

The following describe napping best practices and why you should consider one:

1

适当的长度

“Naps should be either 20–30 minutes or 90 minutes,” says Martin Rawls-Meehan, sleep expert and CEO atReverie, an organization that produces sleep systems. He says if you end up sleeping somewhere between 30–90 minutes, you are likely to feel tired and sluggish when you wake up and for perhaps the rest of the day.

Quick naps that last less than a half an hour allow the body to “reach the restorative Stage 2 sleep, but short enough that we don’t enter the deeper Stages 3 and 4 sleep, which can cause us to feel groggy when we wake up and can produce performance decrements in tasks requiring vigilance,” says Dr. Gruman. Longer 90-minute naps allow you to go through an entire sleep cycle; so, you can wake up without the nap “hangover.” (After extreme workouts, Rawls-Meehan recommends longer naps for recovery.)

2

ENVIRONMENT

Rawls-Meehan recommends dark and cool environments. TheNational Sleep Foundationsays the bedroom temperature should range between 60–67ºF.

3

INSTRUMENTS

Rawls-Meehan suggests using sleep accessories like eye masks to block out artificial and natural daylight, as well as an item that creates white noise. For example, turning on a simple bedroom fan or using a white noise app, such as those that offer rainforest, raindrop or windmill sounds, can create the proper napping ambiance.

4

夜间考虑

You should remain cognizant of what a nap will do to your nighttime slumber. “If you nap regularly in your training, you may need a little more help getting to bed at a reasonable time in the evening,” says Dr. David Brodner, who is board certified in otolaryngology and sleep medicine. For his athlete patients, he recommends a high-quality melatonin with at least seven hours of coverage 30–90 minutes before heading to bed. “Melatonin is the body’s own sleep ingredient and is drug free. There’s no residual hangover like we see in sleep drugs.”

1

恢复时间

有一次繁重的培训课程?小憩。布罗德纳博士说:“午睡可能是恢复过程中至关重要的一部分,从而提高了性能,改善了协调和反射。”

In addition, “after a nap, our cardiovascular systems recover faster when we are exposed to stress,” says Dr. Gruman.

2

COGNITIVE SKILLS

Is your constant training affecting your abilities at work? Nap. In a study published inNature Neurosciencein 2003, researchers found people performed just as well on a visual texture task after a nap than they did after a full night’s sleep.

3

LEARNING SKILLS

Drinking coffee and sodas all day and thereby ruining your nutrition intake? Nap. A study inBehavioural Brain Researchfound an afternoon nap equated to a dose of caffeine when improving perpetual learning. In the experiment, people who napped got better scores on a word-recall task after waking up than people who took caffeine or a placebo.

About the Author

Jennifer Purdie
Jennifer Purdie
Jennifer is a Southern California-based freelance writer who covers topics such as health, fitness, lifestyle and travel for both national and regional publications. She runs marathons across the world and is an Ironman finisher. She is also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. You can follow her on Twitter@jenpurdie.

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