Thursday, April 13, 2006

Naps

I don't know if I've always loved to sleep. I've seen plenty of kids fight it, and I wonder (and doubt!) that I ever did. I think that anytime during the day, someone could yell out, "Naptime" and I'd be down with it. I love sleeping in late, which I will confess, I do pretty often. And there is not many things I can think of that are more luxurious than a good, long afternoon nap.

Unfortunately, I have been made to feel guilty for these pleasures I indulge in. Thought I don't know by who, or how, or why.

Lucky for me, I was reading "Prevention" magazine last night, and in 2 seperate articles, they mentioned the benefits from sleeping more hours at night, and/or daytime naps.

So, for anyone who loves to sleep, here is some cool news for you, as reported in that little magazine-

Women who got 6-7 hours of sleep were 11 lbs, and men 16 1/2 lbs. heavier than those who slept 7-8 hours. So, I'm going to assume, those of us who sleep 8-10 hours are the leanest of them all!!! Apparently, there is a hormone called leptin that suppresses hunger and the more sleep you get, the more of that hormone is released.

Another little article in "Prevention" recommends taking a nap around 2pm each afternoon. That'll boost your alertness. Cool. Okay, but whoa...They recommend a 10 minute nap, because more than 20 minutes might make you groggy. WAIT! WHAT? What kind of crappy nap lasts only 10 minutes?! So, again...I'll make some assumptions: Maybe a 20-ish minute nap might leave you groggy, but what if you nap for more like an hour? Or just nap until you wake up. Just keep falling back asleep until you know longer feel groggy?! That works really well for me.

So, thank you, Prevention magazine for enlightening me- I will spread the word. I will nap proudly from now on.

No comments: