
I can distinctly remember nap time in kindergarten. While all of the other kids seemingly complied with the teacher, laying down on their mats and closing their eyes, I would feel a bolt of resistance course through my entire five-year-old body. I would remain electrified until we were offered milk and cookies as the drowsier kids started coming to. Countless decades later, I would do anything for someone to insist that I take a nap (or, better yet, to wake from said nap to a plate of cookies).
Lucky for those in the 65+ age bracket, that is exactly what is being recommended in a new study recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, which found improved brain function among senior citizens who napped every day for one hour.
The study looked at over 3,000 participants with varying sleep schedules: some taking regular daily naps and others not napping at all. The study revealed that of the 3,000 tested, fewer than 60% took regular daily naps.
The value of those naps was measured in how the people performed on simple tests upon waking up. The researchers administered memorization tests and word recall exercises and also required participants to recreate simple geometric figures.
The results of the study showed that those participants who napped for an hour a day performed better on all of the simple tests administrated than those participants who did not nap.
Unexpectedly, two other categories of “napper” also demonstrated declining mental abilities. Those participants who napped for less than an hour and those participants who napped for over an hour showed a four to six times greater deficit in cognitive skills than those who napped for an hour.
Alarmingly, participants who took shorter, longer, or no naps at all also seemed to experience a decline in mental abilities that is typically characterized by a five-year age increase, according to researchers.
While the study applies to the 65+ age bracket, it is hardly a stretch to imagine that the benefits of napping wouldn’t be universal. In recent years, large, well-known companies have started to realize the value of rest and its direct benefits to the company (i.e., improved employee performance, satisfaction, safety, productivity, etc.) and have been offering its employees “nap times” in places designated for resting.
So, while this study has its detractors, with other researchers insisting that a nap could disrupt our circadian rhythms and increase the incidence of insomnia and other sleep disorders, I think most of us (save a few hyperactive five-year-olds) could use a nap.
Do you nap as an adult? If offered as an employee benefit, would you nap in the workplace?
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