The next time your eyelids get a little heavy at work and you're feeling the need to nap, just tell the boss that it's for your health. We all know that not getting enough sleep isn't good for your health but what do you do about it when you don't get enough sleep?
There is a study that suggests that there is way to reverse the terrible health effects of a bad night’s sleep. Naps! Now don't get carried away... we're talkin' brief daytime naps. Researchers from Universite Paris Descartes-Sorbonne Paris Cite found that naps seemed to restore hormones and proteins involved in stress and immune function to normal levels. I know that kinda feels like it comes from the "Department of Duh" don't it?!
Here's how it work, during the study men were limited to two hours of sleep for one night and ask you can imagine, the next day, "the men had a 2.5-fold increase in levels of norepinephrine, a hormone and neurotransmitter involved in the body’s fight-or-flight response to stress. Norepinephrine increases the body’s heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar."
So they tried again the next night with another night of just two hours of sleep, except this time the men were able to take two, 30-minute naps the day after. The researchers found that the men’s stress hormone and antiviral proteins went back to normal after napping.
See, Napping is GOOD!