Health Benefits Of A Power Nap

by Joseph Sterling
Being tired and sleepy is part and parcel of the busy modern life; it is often difficult to get through the day without being extremely sleepy and wanting to go take a nap. Taking a nap some time during the day is known as a cat nap or a power nap, and is highly enjoyable as well as being refreshing and rejuvenating. In fact, napping provides a boost to the body in many ways, including improved cell repair, heart function, and brain function.

You may still feel somewhat tired after your nap, but this is to be expected, the upside is that despite your tiredness you have given a boost to your brain functioning and have much improved memory capacity after taking a quick nap. Studies have also shown that taking quick naps can reduce stress and boost your overall productivity by increasing our ability to learn and ameliorate your mood. You are certainly doing yourself a big favor by napping during the day, since without a nap your brain functioning will consistently and gradually decline throughout the day.

As you probably know, sleep consists of many different stages. Taking a power nap is meant to only reach the first two stages, namely those of relaxation and light sleep. Your body spends about ten minutes to get through that first stage, and another ten or twenty minutes in the light sleep stage. It is therefore ideal to keep naps at around twenty minutes, though this figure certainly varies between individuals and is by no means set in stone. The problem though is that you do not want to oversleep, because if you slip into the further stages of sleep you will likely experience what is known as sleep inertia. This means you'll wake up with a heavy feeling which leaves you sluggish and requires considerably time to shake off.

People understandably have a difficult time napping during the day, but there are certain methods which can give you an effective routine to follow. One interesting method is to simply relax with a cup of coffee. Once you're done drinking the coffee you can close your eyes and let yourself slowly fall asleep. The caffeine takes about fifteen minutes to kick in, so you'll be naturally woken from your nap and will feel perfectly refreshed. If you still have trouble falling asleep there are many sleep-inducing methods out there, one of the more effective ones includes listening to brainwave music which helps slow your brainwaves and put you to sleep. Author Resource:- Joe trains 5 times a week at Bally's Gym in Orange County. A long-time fitness enthusiast, he recommends that you buy ephedrine and buy ephedra from Astronutrition.