Naps aren't just for toddlers.
Turns out, even adults can benefit
from some daytime downtime.
A power nap can improve performance in reaction time,
logical reasoning, symbol recognition
and, of course, one's mood.
In addition, the length of a nap offers different benefits.
When you're asleep, parts of your brain
that are inactive during waking hours begin to fire up.
These regions pull information and events
from your day and process them.
The trick is keeping your naps brief enough, or long enough,
so that you don't wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle
and feel groggy or fatigued.
Great nap.
It really was.
A University of Michigan study
had one group of participants take a 60-minute snooze,
while a comparison group watched a nature documentary.
The midday nappers were better able to deal with frustration
and were less impulsive
than those who watched the documentary.
But most of us can't check out
for 60 minutes in the middle of the day.
Enter the power nap,
a quick snooze that lasts between 10 to 30 minutes.
Research has shown that even a six-minute nap
can improve long-term memory.
But remember, napping only works during the right window.
Don't catch your Z's after 3 p.m.
or you could disrupt your regular nighttime sleep cycle.