Stop feeling guilty, science is telling you that you should nap at work!

Picture this. After overindulging at lunchtime, tragedy strikes... you feel your strength drain and sleep slowly creeps up on you. You're in, what is called, a food coma.

You have two options: either you go for the classic 'let's keep the coffee flowing' hoping that it will boost your energy, or you go for the controversial solution. You let yourself succumb to the charms of the couch you can see in the break room and go for a power nap.

While the second option isn't the one that is the most respected, science is now telling us that it should be the one to opt for.

Sleep at work, your brain will thank you

You may not want to believe this, but you can't really go against science. A new study, published on 19 June, 2023, in Sleep Health links napping to neurological health, or rather, napping to... brain size.

According to the article, scientists have found 'a modest causal link between habitual napping and an increase in total brain volume'. In other words, nappers have bigger brains, according to the study.

The researchers remind us that brain volume declines with age, and they noted that 'those who habitually napped showed an ageing difference of 2.6 to 6.5 years.'

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The power nap, an increasingly popular corporate break

Lack of sleep is detrimental to productivity, and companies are well aware of this. So it's no surprise that a growing number of start-ups are giving their employees the means to nap in comfort.

However, do be careful. There's a difference between a power nap and a three-hour-long nap. The former, nicknamed the 'power nap', doesn't exceed 30 minutes (or even 20), while the latter has no real limit (except perhaps that of dismissal for gross misconduct?). On a more serious note, the amount of rest you have has real effects on the brain, as the study points out:

Napping appears to be beneficial for performance on certain cognitive tasks. Thesebenefits appear immediately after a short nap (e.g. 5-15 minutes) and can last between 1 and 3 hours.

After a long nap (>30 minutes), a temporary deterioration in performance appears, followed by improvements lasting up to a day.

Read more: Sleep: Here's how overthinking prevents you from falling asleep at night

Source:

Sleep health: Is there an association between daytime napping, cognitive function, and brain volume? A Mendelian randomization study in the UK Biobank