It would surprise you to know, that more than 85 percent of mammalian species are polyphasic sleepers, which means, that they sleep for short periods, throughout the day. Humans are the part of the smaller group of monophonic sleepers, meaning that our days are divided into two distinct periods, one for sleep and the other for wakefulness. It hasn’t be made clear that this is natural sleep pattern of humans. Elder persons and young children usually nap and napping is a very important aspect of many cultures.
Studies have shown that the United States, as a nation appears to be becoming more sleep deprived, than any other nation. And this can be associated to having very busy lifestyles. Despite the facts, that naps don’t make it compulsory to make up for inadequate or poor quality night time sleep, a little nap of 20-30 minutes can really help to improve mood, alertness and general performance.
Types of napping
There are various types of napping, a few have been listed here to further enlighten our knowledge of napping.
1. Planned napping
This is also known as preparatory napping. It involves taking a nap, before you actually get sleepy as much. You make like to use this technique when you ward off getting tired earlier.
2. Emergency napping
This usually occurs, when you suddenly feels very tired and cannot continue with that activity, that you were originally engaged in. This type of nap is usually used to combat drowsy driving of fatigue, while using heavy and dangerous machinery.
3. Habitual napping
This is practiced when a person takes a nap, occasionally at the same time every day. This is common among young children. The may fall asleep about the same time each afternoon or an adult also may take a short nap after lunch every day, to gave a rest to his mind.
Here are some more benefits of napping indicating that you should try to nap when you get a chance.
Image courtesy of: oprah.com,
