ThePowerofPowerNapping.docVIP

The Power of Power Napping 发布时间：2012-04-21 文章出自：PsychCentral 原文链接：点击查看 At best, napping is viewed as a luxury or indulgence. At worst, it’s seen as a slothful activity. Maybe you’ve also felt the pangs of guilt after awaking from a short snooze. Or judged someone else for falling asleep at their desk. But napping doesn’t make you a lazy worker, and it doesn’t pillage your productivity. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Napping actually offers a slew of benefits, which might make you reconsider your stance on midday slumbers — and add them to your routine. “Napping leads to improvements in mood, alertness and performance [such as] reaction time, attention, and memory, ” according to Kimberly Cote, Ph.D, Professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brock University. (Her 2009 review, co-authored with researcher Catherine Milner, summarizes the research on these many benefits.) Research at NASA demonstrated that pilots who had a 26-minute nap in the cockpit were more alert — by 54 percent — and had improved performance by 34 percent. Studies using advanced tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) also have found performance benefits for nappers. Studies have even suggested that napping may produce the same memory gains as a full night’s slumber, as shown on tasks that tested declarative memory, motor memory and spatial memory. Tips for a Truly Beneficial Nap All naps aren’t created equal. For instance, a two-hour nap may leave you feeling disoriented and groggy, and even disrupt your nighttime slumber. So what’s the best nap to take? An ideal nap is a short one. According to research, 10 to 20 minutes is best, Cote said. “Longer naps will allow you to enter deeper sleep, which will contribute to the grogginess — also called sleep inertia — experienced upon awakening and disrupt nighttime sleep, ” she said. Napping for 10 minutes is especially helpful at work, because you get the maximum benefits with less grogginess, she said. Such short naps primarily