How can a nap be healthy and productive

The 2018-09-10 web

How long do you take a nap? When to sleep? How can you wake up refreshed? Sleep expert damian davina, in the French newspaper marie-claire, gives a few tips on how healthy and productive a nap can be.

The art of healthy naps lies in its regularity

The purpose of taking a nap is undoubtedly clear, but it takes practice to complete a high-quality nap that allows the body to recover deeply. Once you get the hang of it, it will always be tried, like riding a bicycle -- never forgotten.

According to damian, it only takes five to 10 days of training to master this lifelong benefit: "" for a nap, the ideal thing is to have some regularity and set the body clock to rest before the entire afternoon begins. The human body is designed to rest at around 1pm, not 4pm or later.

Best time to nap: 15 to 20 minutes

Do we all feel more tired after waking up than before we go to bed? If so, it's because we sleep too long.

Damian's research found that the best time to nap is between 15 and 20 minutes. But once you become a habit, you automatically wake up after 20 minutes."

The trick to falling asleep quickly

In order to quickly put yourself to sleep, you need a stimulus that triggers a related biological mechanism for sleep. "" it's best to pick an image that's enjoyable, like: a holiday photo or a poster that's stuck in the office," "damian explains.

He found that people spent four to five minutes looking at the detail in front of the image, moving from the center to the edge, and then looking at it loosely by the spiral line. Thus to have a comprehensive understanding of this picture, in the mind has a general concept. "Once we have this concept, we start thinking about the image, from the center of the image to the edge, and each time we think about it, our desire to rest is stronger."

Damian also suggests a quick way to fall asleep: focus your mind on breathing. At the same time, feel the weight of the body with your heart, and your mind moves and stops all over your body, from head to foot. After a few minutes of training, we can successfully fall asleep.

The office siesta sitting position

The cramped office space is one of the last obstacles we have to complete a siesta, and it's difficult for us to take a break as an excuse to take a siesta on the floor of the office.

But damian offers a solution: "even if you sit still, you can train to take a nap, whether it's on the subway, on the bus or in the office. The sleeping position that should be adopted in this way is, feet on the ground, arms crossed on the table to support the head. Of course, it's important to remind our colleagues before taking a nap, and try to get used to being unaffected by the noise. Once we get into the habit, these familiar sounds are automatically ignored by our bodies.