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