Researchers from the Allergheny College of Pennsylvania (USA) show thata daily nap of at least 45 minutes lowers blood pressureof those who have suffered a stressful day with a lot of psychological tension.
As stated in the latest issue of the magazineInternational Journal of Behavioral Medicine, long working hours, shift work, television and the Internet are affecting the quality of sleep, to the point that citizens sleep an average of almost two hours a day less than half a century ago. This affects long-term health and, in fact, there arestudies linking lack of sleep with an increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular problems.
To try to reduce this impact, researchers Ryan Brindle and Sarah Conklin analyzedWhether napping could influence cardiovascular recovery after a mental stress test. To do this, they selected 85 healthy university students who were divided into two groups, so that some of the participants were assigned one hour a day in which they could sleep for at least 60 minutes. At the same time, the students completed questionnaires to assess the quality of sleep and know their daily activity, while their blood pressure and heart rate were also measured.
In this way, they observed that the nap seemed to have a restorative effect on the students since, although in all of them blood pressure and heart rate increased during the beginning of their day, those who napped showed a decrease in both markers. These results were most evident when the students sleptbetween 45 and 60 minutes a day.
According to the researchers, “the findings suggest that napping may speed upcardiovascular recovery after a mentally stressful situation“.
