7 Benefits of Power Napping to Encourage You to Take Them ...

You will greatly decrease your levels of stress. One of the greatest benefits of power napping is that it can reduce your levels of stress hormones. Even a quick snooze lasting only twenty minutes can significantly change your out-of-control day into a manageable one. So the next time you are feeling like you just cannot take it anymore, find a nice, quiet spot and sleep it off for a short time. When you wake up, the problems will not seem so bad and you may have even figured out a better way to handle them.

A power nap can make you more productive and more alert. After a bad night’s sleep, you most likely feel like you cannot do much of anything during the day, which means you are also not getting much done. You are also walking around all day feeling groggy, which does not help matters. The benefits of power naps are that you can feel like you got a great night’s sleep just by snoozing for as little as twenty minutes. That is all that is needed to feel more awake, be a lot more productive and end the day feeling more accomplished.

Are you having trouble remembering things or grasping new concepts? What better reason to power nap than to improve your memory and your ability to learn something new? One study showed that participants who took a twenty-minute power nap were able to point out small changes in an image during several different test sessions during a one-day period. Even if your night’s sleep was a good one, sometimes a power nap may help you recharge so that you are still on top of your learning and remembering game.

Countries whose residents take midday siestas seem to have lower incidences of heart disease. Research has shown that taking just three half-hour naps per week can lower your risk of a heart-related death by thirty-seven percent. Young, healthy men will particularly benefit from a power nap with regards to their heart health, but it should be a part of everyone’s regular routine. The decreased levels of stress hormones in your body plays an important part in this very beneficial effect of power naps.

NASA researchers discovered that a half-hour power nap improved the cognitive function of study participants by forty percent. Interestingly enough, a nap that lasted longer than forty-five minutes seemed to have the opposite effect as cognitive function was not improved and even waned a bit—there are more benefits of power napping when they are kept short and sweet.

Unexpected benefits of power napping also include a greater desire and willingness to exercise. The fact is, the more rested you are, the more energy you have, so being tired is no longer an excuse you can use to avoid physical activity. You will also find that your workouts are more intense, last longer and produce greater results over the long-term.

A well-rested mind is a more creative mind. When you get writer’s block or do not know where to find inspiration for your next art project, a power nap can tap into your creative juices by stimulating your brain in a non-stressful way. When you spend hours trying to come up with something creative or imaginative, your brain gets overworked and pretty much shuts down, resulting in no new ideas. The benefits of power naps let your mind take a break so that new ideas can come in and inspire you.

It is an amazing thing that there are significant benefits from power naps even though they last such a short time. Are you a power napper?