The Blessings of a Brief Sleep

SOMERSET, N.J. - April 25, 2016 - PRLog -- While getting enough sleep at night can be a problem for many people, napping is a way happier subject. Unless you're a stressed-out mother trying to get a fractious toddler to rest, naps are a matter of pleasant indulgence.

If you don't fall asleep, no problem! - You can go simply get on with your day. If you do, the chances are you'll wake up happier for the break.

Being able to pass out for a few minutes and wake with renewed energy can be a mark of greatness. British prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher both boasted of their ability to get by on very little night-time sleep but recharged their batteries with quick naps. President John F. Kennedy was a nap-taker, as were Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison, who often got by with two hours or less at night, helped along with at least two 20-minute snoozes during the day.

Dr. Chana Zablocki, a family physician and medical director at the Oscar and Ella Wilf Campus for Senior Living's Stein Hospice, sees napping as a benefit for anyone who feels they need it.

As people age, she explains, lower hormone levels can interfere with our ability to get enough hours of deep REM sleep. For those who aren't sleeping well at night, she favors day time naps of at least an hour. That allows for a helpful dose of REM sleep.

Whether you take that rest in an armchair, or snuggled into bed is a personal choice, dependent on how you breathe most easily. "Good oxygen levels are important," she explained, "so do whatever works best for you."

Jennifer Soong, writing for WebMD Magazine, says research shows that if you nap for more than 20 minutes it helps "boost memory and enhance creativity. Slow-wave sleep -- napping for approximately 30 to 60 minutes -- is good for decision-making skills, such as memorizing vocabulary or recalling directions."

Dr. Sara C. Mednick, author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life, recommends napping at the same time each day, usually between 1 pm and 3 pm, in a darkened room. A good nap, Mednick says, not only reduces stress, it can also help keep the heart healthy.

On the other hand, according to the sleep experts at the Mayo Clinic, too much napping can interfere with night sleep. They recommend short naps, and not too many. Wanting to sleep much more than usual may be a symptom of depression or anxiety. Excess fatigue - like the inability to sleep - can also signal an underlying malaise, or a problem with medication.

But wakefulness itself need not be a problem. Quiet rest time, according to Audrey Oxenhorn, LCSW, can be invaluable. "Down time can connect you to who you are," she says.

Oxenhorn, a therapist and life coach with a practice in East Millstone, NJ, has led workshops on sleeping as educational programs given by the Wilf Campus. She says that the right attitude to that twilight space can make all the difference between getting refreshed and getting aggravated.

We live in a culture, she points out,  that offers perpetual stimulation throughout our waking hours - made all the more hectic with television and now the internet. "If we get bored, we don't know what to do with ourselves," she says. Our response is to use medication or drugs or alcohol to help us switch off. But that skews the body processes, producing a type of rest that is very different than natural sleep. "Our rhythms get out of whack," she says.

Oxenhorn stresses that refreshing rest for the mind and the body doesn't require "being comatose." If you simply relax - the way some cultures do with their siestas - you can recharge your batteries, and face the rest of the day with renewed vigor.

The Oscar and Ella Wilf Campus for Senior Living is comprised of Stein Assisted Living, Jaffa Gate Memory Care Neighborhood at Stein Assisted Living, Stein Hospice, Wilentz Senior Residence, Wilf Transport, Wilf At Home, and The Foundation at the Wilf Campus. For more information, contact us at (732) 568-1155 (tel:%28732%29%20568-1155), info@wilfcampus.org or visit us at www.wilfcampus.org.