If you are suffering from too much stress at work, and lose your cool easily, an hour of afternoon nap might control your blood pressure and hence protect against heart diseases, a new US study suggests. 0diggsdigg
If you are suffering from too much stress at work, and lose your cool easily, an hour of afternoon nap might control your blood pressure and hence protect against heart diseases, a new US study suggests.
The study conducted by the researchers at the Allegheny College in Pennsylvania in the U.S. suggests that having a 45 minute catnap at daytime helps lower blood pressure more quickly after a stressful event.
With the average night's sleep now two hours shorter than it was 50 years ago, researchers claim having a siesta provides a simple way of improving cardiovascular health, the Telegraph reports.
Longer working hours, night shifts, increased anxiety during recession, and watching TV late at night, all have an impact on a good night's sleep. As a result, the sleeping hours have reduced to two hours less than the old times.
Hitherto studies have linked sleeping less with an increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
Study details and findings In order to determine how daytime sleeping might influence cardiovascular recovery, lead researchers Ryan Brindle and Sarah Conklin, PhD, from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, conducted an experiment on 85 healthy university students.
The researchers then split the participants into two groups. While the first group was asked to take a shuetye for 60 minutes during the work hours, the second group did not sleep during the day.
The participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire related to sleep quality and a cardiovascular reactivity test, involving a complex mental subtracting exercise.
Researchers then measured participants' blood pressure and pulse rate at regular intervals throughout the experiment.
The study found that sleeping for 45-60 minutes a day had a restorative effect with students reporting lower blood pressure during the post-activity period than those who did not take the afternoon nap.
Findings of the study show that an hour of daytime sleep facilitates blood pressure recovery after a stressful event at work.
Need for further research Study authors Ryan Brindle and Sarah Conklin PhD said the experiment proved the "recuperative and protective" benefits of a daytime snooze.
They said: "Our findings suggest that daytime sleep may offer cardiovascular benefit by accelerating cardiovascular recovery following mental stressors.
“Further research is needed to explore the mechanism by which daytime sleep is linked with cardiovascular health and to evaluate daytime sleep as a recuperative and protective practice, especially for individuals with known cardiovascular disease risk and those with suboptimal sleep quality."
The study is published in the March issue of the Springer's journal 'International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.'