Sometimes the mistake is made of associating the afternoon nap with laziness, convinced that those who do it are looking only for an excuse to rest during the day and nothing more.
However, a new study suggests that sleeping for a short time after lunch is not only pleasant, it can make people over 60 mentally sharp.
assessment of senile dementia and includes observations on visual and spatial skills, attention span, problem solving, working memory, position awareness and verbal fluency.
As confirmed by the physician who conducted the study, Lin Sun of the Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders at the Shanghai Mental Health Center and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the most rested subjects performed particularly well in the past three. categories.
Participants in the experiment who had napped regularly were asked how often they carried on this habit during a typical week, but as the responses ranged from once to every day, it was not possible to determine if there was a minimum recommended cadence. the benefits were obvious Another weakness of the study was that the researchers did not ask the participants how long their afternoon rest periods on average lasted.
greatly influences the ability to learn. Taking a nap, in fact, helps to recover from burnout or information overload because during those moments the brain deletes unnecessary information from the temporary storage areas, in order to prepare for the absorption of new information.
How long a nap should last
A nap to be defined as such must take place at any time after lunch, last at least 5 consecutive minutes and not exceed 2 hours.
According to scholars, the ideal would be to do it between 13:00 and 15:00, making it last from 10 to 30 minutes and no more, in order not to risk falling into the so-called inertia of sleep, or the phase in which you sleep. very deeply, waking up becomes difficult and one remains groggy for the rest of the day. This good habit would lead to numerous other benefits such as improving mood, energy and productivity by reducing anxiety and physical and mental tension. Plus, it would make you feel more alert and ready to face the rest of the day.
The benefits of the afternoon siesta would also benefit learning: by resting, the brain begins to transfer memories from its temporary holding facility, the hippocampus, to their permanent home, the cortex.
nocturnal is not sufficient for your body to support the normal activities of the waking hours. Sleep disorders are very common and have different origins ranging from stress, anxiety, excess caffeine intake, bad bedtime habits such as spending too many hours in front of computer and smartphone screens and many others.
There is a type of insomnia linked to the concerns of the Covid-19 pandemic: coronasomnia.
In addition, the causes of insomnia or sleep disturbances can increase over the years. In older people, for example, hypothetical suboptimal medical conditions and the drugs used to treat them could have a major impact. In particular, drugs for the regulation of blood pressure, against arthritis and relaxants for the muscles, in addition to those indicated for psychological and mental pathologies, would have a greater impact.
Even patients affected by senile dementia often show difficulty in living the moment of sleep in the best possible way but it is not yet clear whether the disease in question is the cause or effect of this.
Sleeping well is one of the strategies indicated to improve memory.
