Sleep Test Proves The Power of The Power Nap – Dave’s Diary
We've talked about this before and again I’ll admit to the occasional “power nap”. I’ll even admit to taking a nap or two long before researchers came out in support of the idea!
Morning radio has forever altered my natural sleep patterns and I can never seem to get enough deep nighttime sleep. But there is some new info reported in the Daily Mail that shows just a 30 minute power nap can help undo damage caused by lack of sleep.
Researchers worked with a small group of men age 25 to 32 and studied the connection between their hormones and sleep. What they found was that when the men got limited sleep they had a significant increase in their levels of the hormone and neropinephrine which is known for being involved with the body's fight-or-flight response. That’s when your body goes into an internal high alert survival mode--not exactly the kind of restful night's sleep the body needs to rebuild the immune system!
The sleep researchers found that the test subject’s neropinephrine levels returned to normal after a power nap. Just a half hour of extra shuteye can relieve stress, and restore hormones and proteins to normal levels.
So if it's 2 pm and my door is closed, consider me working on my immune system!