It was the Romans who, among the pleasures they cultivated to make life more beautiful and hedonistic, introduced that little time of sleep, which was all the more attractive if it was exercised after having consumed sophisticated delicacies washed down with wine extracted from the vineyards of the Empire fields
“The word nap comes from the Latin sexta,” explains Juan José Ortega, vice president of the Spanish Sleep Society, an expert in sleep medicine. “The Romans stopped to eat and rest in the sixth hour of the day, which they divided into twelve daytime hours.” Since its Roman origins, the siesta became a cross-cultural phenomenon that spread throughout the Mediterranean countries and reached Latin America.
MANAGE THE NECESSARY ENERGY.
To maintain good health, protect the brain and obtain optimal performance during our working hours or those that require constant effort, we must properly manage our energy. To that end, we must not only eat a balanced diet and exercise, but we must take care of our sleeping habits and manage the time dedicated to Morpheus (Greek god of dreams) with rational use.
The brain, which represents 2% of the body weight, consumes approximately 25% of the oxygenated glucose and other nutrients transported by the circulatory system, which represents a large amount of energy that the body needs to provide to that thinking organ to be able to carry carry out their normal functions.
Furthermore, we ask the brain to concentrate for long periods of time, make decisions and be alert to successive tasks, which involves a large consumption of energy that can generate stress situations, poor nutritional habits and sleep dysfunctions.
Even in more comfortable habitual situations, the brain is active during sleep, processing information, recreating memories and reliving in images problems from the day that have blocked it, or mixing everything and providing us with absurd and often annoying images and dream experiences. ; situations that detract from the rest that those hours of sleep should provide us.
The idea that sleep hours have nothing to do with energy, whether physical or mental, is widespread. However, the cheetah, the fastest land mammal in the world, gives us a resounding example of the opposite. The acceleration capacity of this feline allows it to go from 0 to 96 kilometers per hour, but it spends 18 hours a day sleeping.
A REPAIRING SLEEP.
According to John Peever, director of the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory at the University of Toronto, and Brian Murray, director of the Sleep Laboratory at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, “sleep has not been fully understood, but it is known that it regenerates the brain cells, eliminates toxins from the brain and improves the ability to learn and memorize.”
As is common, most people do not get enough sleep or sleep inappropriately, so an afternoon nap can help increase attention, mood, and cognitive functioning.
The recommended time for a nap is twenty to thirty minutes, while naps of an hour or more can be harmful and detract from its benefits, while at the same time it could worsen the conditions for undertaking this task again at night. And the hours that specialists recommend to best take a nap are between 2 pm and 4 pm, because it is considered that during that period it is easier to fall asleep.
If you consistently sleep seven to eight hours a night, you probably don’t require a nap; But if you have a job that demands a lot of mental or physical energy, it is recommended that you do it. It may be impossible, depending on the type of job you have, but a twenty-minute nap is better than a twenty-minute coffee break.
“PRESENT IN OUR DNA”.
Sara Mednick, author of ‘Take a nap: change your life’, explains that the need to take a nap seems to be present in our DNA, but the pressure to generate productivity after the industrial revolution , hourly wages and digital distractions meant that, in some ways, the nap was not well regarded”; despite the fact that among workers in large cities, such as in Mexico and Spain, it is still customary to take a nap.
One of the most deeply rooted ideas among the population is that drowsiness appears after lunch and due to the digestion process, but as Harold L. Taylor points out in his book ‘How to Manage Personal Energy’, “one thing is certain: it is not “It’s not a heavy lunch that makes us feel sleepy, but rather circadian rhythms (physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle).”
That’s why researchers recommend taking an afternoon nap, as it increases alertness and productivity. Even NASA schedules naps during flights as they help improve pilots’ performance on long trips.
According to Victoria de la Fuente, a psychologist specializing in sleep disorders at the Dexeus Institute in Barcelona, “it is not because of the food, as we normally think, it is because the brain asks for a break.” That’s why, according to the psychologist, we drink stimulating drinks like coffee or tea after eating.
In order to benefit from a nap, in addition to the previous advice, experts indicate that we should keep in mind that a sofa or a comfortable armchair is better to rest than a bed, because in this way we get closer to the ideal duration of the nap. snap. Eliminate the idea that a nap is a waste of time because, on the contrary, it contributes to improving performance when the activity is resumed, and reduces the risks to which we are exposed in our work activity, because it increases the Mental acuity.
Isabel Martínez Pita.
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