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Whoa, I'm ready!
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Research has shown a full night’s sleep is good for your memory, mood, and immune system
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just to name a few benefits. But what about taking a nap during the day? Is it helpful or
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harmful? How does the length of the nap impact you? And is there an optimal time to grab a quick
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snooze? Thankfully researchers have looked into this too, and much like an unconscious body on
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a couch in the afternoon sun, the results need to be laid out. Depending on a person’s age,
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napping is downright necessary. Generally speaking, the younger a person is, the more
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sleep their developing brains & bodies need, so experts recommend that newborns get 14 to
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17 hours of sleep, while preschoolers should get 10 to 13 hours of shuteye every day. That's a
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long time to spend unconscious—that's like cat-levels of napping—
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so it’s not going to happen all in a row. The kiddos
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need to take naps, no matter how much they kick and scream when they hear it’s nap time.
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Guidelines also say that kids age 6 to 13 should get anywhere from 9 to 11 or even 12
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hours of sleep daily, so if you’re in junior high and keep nodding off in class, let the teacher
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know a science YouTube video says it’s healthy. It won’t get you out of detention but your
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instructors can share a good laugh later in the teacher’s lounge. Once people are adults though,
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do they really need to sneak in a siesta? Strictly speaking, it doesn’t seem like something we as a
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species need to do. Our modern way of life with our 9 to 5 jobs and our fancy electric light bulbs
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might have altered how we sleep compared to our ancient ancestors. So to see if that’s the case,
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researchers studied 94 individuals from current-day hunter-gatherer groups in Tanzania,
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Namibia, and Bolivia who live more like humans did 10,000 years ago. While almost all of them
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would take a break in the middle of the day when the sun was beating down, none of them
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would take that time to catch some Zs. So it doesn’t look like napping is
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something humans would do intrinsically if it weren’t for the demands of modern life.
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Napping isn’t necessary for adults, but it still could have potential upsides. Because
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our brains go through different stages during sleep, the benefits of a nap are correlated with
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its length. If you find yourself slowing down in the middle of the day after lunch, a quick
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20 minute power nap could be all you need to wake up feeling refreshed and alert. A short nap could
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also help your memory in some ways, but longer naps could have bigger benefits to learning and
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recall. Konking out for 60 minutes could help you with remembering vocabulary or directions.
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Staying asleep for an hour to an hour and a half will allow your brain to enter REM sleep and some
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research has found that the benefits for learning are on par with getting a full night’s rest.
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The perfect nap length will vary from person to person.
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The 20 minute power nap isn’t a hard and fast rule; you may get the same benefits
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from as little as 10 minutes of sleep or as much as 45 minutes.
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Be warned though: allowing your brain to go into the deep sleep stage could lead to
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what’s called “sleep inertia,” where you wake up feeling groggy and paradoxically
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more tired. Taking a nap at the wrong time of day can also make it difficult to fall asleep later
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that night. If you’re on that 9 to 5 grind, try to avoid napping after 4 pm. I guess that means
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you’ll have to nap at work. Again do not try to pin this on me if your boss doesn’t approve.
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Regular nappers appear to get more out of it than those who don’t doze off daily.
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They might feel sharper and in better spirits compared to their counterparts,
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who feel sluggish after waking.I wish I could say this was a case where they had honed their napping
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abilities by being dedicated to their craft because it would mean I finally have a chance to
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truly be great at something, but it’s possible that people who nap regularly choose to do so
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because they get benefits from it. In other words, they’re a self-selecting bunch, and people who
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find themselves feeling icky after a nap likely won’t do it as often. If you fall into that second
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category of people then maybe naps just aren’t for you, but hey at least there’s always coffee.
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If you have trouble getting to sleep you may use a white noise machine, but would it help more if
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your noise was pinker? Check out my video on pink noise here. Let us know in the comments
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if you’re team nap or team no sleep, be sure to subscribe, and thanks for watching Seeker!