What is the difference between people who take long naps and those who never nap? Research gives answers

“Don’t sleep during the day, healthy people try to sleep at night!”

They all say that if you don’t sleep at noon, you will collapse in the afternoon! Especially now, when it is easy to feel sleepy in the spring, taking a nap at noon can restore vitality for the study and work in the afternoon.

But someone even said that you should not sleep during the day, or Lu Lin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said it. Do you think it makes sense?

1. Don’t sleep during the day, why did the academician say not to take a nap

“2022 China “Report on Sleep Quality of Workplace Youth” shows that over 70% of young people sleep less than 7 hours a day on average. The more awake you are during the day, the better you will be able to sleep at night, so for people who have been sleeping poorly at night for a long time, don’t make up for sleep during the day and don’t take a nap.

Because people who have poor sleep for a long time, If they take a nap during the day, they will fall into a vicious cycle of insomnia at night. At night, the body’s biological clock will become Confusion, or induction of sleep time will come later. Therefore, Academician Lu Lin suggested that people who cannot sleep well at night should not take a nap.

To make a point, that is to say, sleep at night is more important than sleep during the day. Academician Lu Lin suggested that it is best to go to bed before 11:30 in the evening and get up around 7 in the morning. Adults should sleep 7~ 8 hours, primary school students need to sleep 10 hours a day, junior high school students 9 hours, and high school students 8 hours.

Second, what is the difference between those who like naps and those who don’t like naps

Don’t take a nap, it varies from person to person. Academician Zhong Nanshan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering once admitted that taking a nap is a magic weapon to restore energy and relax, and taking a proper nap is also beneficial.

1. Eliminate sleepiness and enhance brain memory

Mednick, a Harvard psychologist, found that taking a nap during the day Like sleep at night, it promotes sleep-dependent memory. Therefore, taking a nap can help enhance memory. Taking a nap can transform fragmented memories into memories with a network structure, and during sleep, information can be changed from short-term memory to long-term memory.

2. Regulate emotions and reduce stress in life

2010, published in Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience One study found that the body’s relaxation and happiness components increased significantly during the waking period after a nap. In fact, many people will feel relaxed after taking a nap, which can effectively improve their mood, relieve tension, and feel much more relaxed.

3. Help prevent Alzheimer’s

In 2021, Professor Sun Lin of Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Fourth People’s Hospital of Wuhu, Anhui Prof. Han Cai and others found that naps can effectively prevent Alzheimer’s disease, and regular naps can also make thinking more agile. The study is currently published in the journal “General Psychiatry”.

4. Help prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases

A study published in the journal Heart found that taking an occasional lunch break, such as 1 nap a week~ People who took 2 naps nearly halved their risk of heart failure/stroke by about 48% compared to those who didn’t nap at all.

Third, focus: if the nap time is too long, it is too late

The research team of Guangzhou Medical University The analysis was conducted by studying 313,651 participants’ naps to assess the relationship between naps and cardiovascular disease risk and risk of all-cause mortality. The results of the study showed that people who slept more than an hour at night were associated with a 30% increased risk of all-cause mortality and a 34% increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those who did not nap.

Although naps have many health benefits, the longer the better. Director Jiang Fan from the Department of Sleep Disorders of the Brain Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou Medical University explained that if the nap is too long, it is easy to enter REM sleep and deep sleep stages. The heartbeat is uneven, and if you wake up from this stage of sleep, people are likely to feel palpitation, general weakness, listlessness, and depression. For patients with sleep apnea, if the nap time is too long, it will increase the occurrence of hypoxic events and sleep apnea events, increase the cardiovascular load, and increase the risk of disease.

4. What should I pay attention to when taking a nap?

In addition to taking a nap that is not too long, there are also 3 points to pay attention to in order to have a good nap:

1. Don’t Go to bed immediately after eating

After eating, horses go to bed in the morning easily affects the digestion and absorption of food, and also affects the quality of sleep. Feeling tired and dizzy easily. It is recommended to take a nap for 10-20 minutes after lunch, or sleep for 15-30 minutes before lunch.

2. It’s best not to sleep on your stomach, and even if it’s bad, you should sleep on your back

Sleeping on the table will compress the eyeball and easily hurt the eyes. lead to glaucoma, high myopia and other diseases. In addition, sleeping on your stomach can compress the blood vessels or nerves in your arms, causing numbness or weakness in your hands. It is recommended to lie down for naps. If you can buy a foldable reclining chair in the company, you can take a nap, if it really doesn’t work, you can also choose to lean on the chair and squint for a while.

3. It is better for obese people not to sleep

For obese people, there may be metabolism of lipids and carbohydrates The problem is that when a person is in a sleep state, the metabolism will slow down, so taking a nap for a fat person is not conducive to weight control. It is best not to take a nap. If you really want to sleep, you should avoid taking too much lunch. Fat and high-calorie foods.

For some people, taking a nap is equivalent to a gas station, which has many benefits to the human body, but those who do not have the habit of taking naps do not need to force themselves to take a nap. Closing your eyes is also a good rest.

References:

[1] How does the body “repair” itself during a nap? Let these organs answer you”. Life Times. 2018-07-02

[2] “Excessive naps increase the risk of death by 30%! Scientists reveal the “best time”…”. Life Times. 2020-09-04

[3] “The benefits of naps are many, but not the longer the better”. Xinhuanet. 2020-10 -23