A nap at the middle-day is a simple and effective way to fight the stress, to stimulate the concentration and to get back of the lost sleep.

The nap defines itself as an extra time of sleep which we give ourselves during the day. The word comes from Spanish ” siesta “, stemming from the Latin hora sexta, the sixth hour, the hottest of day. But any need to justify it to plead that it is warm, or that we badly slept the day befoer or makes a copious and watered meal, even if, in these cases, it is more easily imperative …

A bodily need of which you should not abuse

” The nap is a natural need, at any age of the life “, explains Pr Damien Léger, vice-president of the French Society of research and medicine of the sleep and responsible for the Center of the sleep and for the vigilance of the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris. ” However, he pursues, we do not explain well the reasons of this hollow of the middle-day. “

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The ideal nap lasts from 15 at 20 minutes. She allows to enter the sleep without having of difficulty in going out of it. Longer, she risks, upon awakening, to make feel what the specialists call “the inertia of the sleep”, bound to a too deep dive in the arms of Morpheus. More discreet, the micro-nap of 2-3 minutes allows a quite small cut and has a relaxing effect. It is enough to close eyes and to let go itself a few moments. She was popularized by Salvador Dali: he put a spoon in his mouth and closed eyes until it falls and wakes him!

Beneficial, but always taboo

How to practise her? It is necessary to settle down comfortably in a little noisy place where we are not going to be disturbed and t be woken. It is not necessary to isolate itself, to put itself in the darkness or to be lengthened (we can “siester” sat). It is enough to close eyes and to let go itself in the sleep by breathing calmly, even by devoting to exercises of musing. It is useless to try to sleep at all costs. “Even if the sleep does not come, the nap will have all the same a relaxing effect”, specifies Pr Léger.

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Numerous studies showed the positive effects of the nap on the cognitive functions. After a nap, we are more attentive and less anxious. The memory and the concentration are at the top. We are more effective. However,” the nap keeps being taboo because it is associated with the laziness “, regrets Pr Léger.

In 2015, his team established the beneficial physiological effects of the nap at the private persons of sleep. To these, the concentration of the inflammatory factors in the blood (immunoglobulins, cortisol) increases. These people are also more sensitive to the pain. The nap allows them to restore these parameters at the same level as somebody who is not deprived of sleep.” ” At the night workers, who sleep on average one hour less than the day workers, those who have a nap suffer less obesity or diabetes than those who do not make it”, Pr Léger completes.

When, according to the last statistics of the national Institute of the sleep and the vigilance (2015), 33 % of the employees are deprived of sleep, that is sleep less of 6 hours by 24 hours, we can that regret that the law work, which plans certainly times of compulsory rests, did not integrate the nap into its capacities!