Information on Loughborough

Power Naps

Posted on 10/09/2007
Loughborough Newsdesk

sleeping on a sofa

The next time you start to feel tired in the afternoon, dont head to the kettle and make yourself a coffee, grab yourself a pillow and have a nap.

Scientists from Loughborough University have just revealed research at an international sleep conference that makes interesting reading, especially if you are the sort of person that always feels tired despite having coffee and layins.

What the Loughborough scientists found that if you wanted to get rid of those bouts of overwealming sleepiness during the day then it was far better to have a quick 20 minute snooze than a coffee. They also found that a quick power nap was also better than having an extra long lay-in in the morning.

How did these researchers find all this out?  What the they did was to get volunteers to have either an extra 90 minutes in bed in the morning, or have a 20 minute nap at 2pm or finally a cup of coffee at 2:30 in the afternoon. The sleep guinea pigs were then assessed for how tired they were and how alert they were during the afternoon and into the evening.

The study, presented to an international sleep conference in Cairns, involved 14 good sleepers who tested three popular options for beating the natural mid-afternoon dip in the body clock.

For the people who had the extra 90 minutes in bed in the morning it was found that there was no difference whatsoever to alertness levels in the afternoon or evening. It really was a waste of 90 minutes in bed.

When the people had the coffee, then this did perk them up, however the effects of the coffee only lasted for a couple of hours.

However those people who had the 20 minute nap showed the real improvement in alertness and more suprisingly these continued up until the last test at 7:45pm in the evening.

Dr Clare Anderson told delegates that it was possible that he extra sleep in the morning had little or no effect because the sleep at this time of day wasnt very deep and not very recuperative.

Despite the findings of the survey, you may be seen to be antiscocial if you head off for a 20 minute nap rather than a coffee with your work colleagues so there will be few people who would actually take the opportunity if they could take it. Also, if you drink too much coffee during the day the quality of your sleep at night  can be effected making you more tired the following day which means that you will drink more coffee which will effect your sleep in the following evening ... ,.... ,..... ,....