MADRID (dpa) – It may seem like an economic planner’s nightmare, and another instance of “typical southern” indolence: people sleeping in beds and on sofas, on buses and on park benches in the middle of the working day.
Yet the Spanish custom of the nap or siesta is not what it seems, and scientists are increasingly discovering that napping not only helps people work and live better, but can even lengthen their lives.Spaniards, who claim to have invented the afternoon nap, have been taking siestas for hundreds of years. City shops close in the afternoons between 2 and 5.30 p.m., and village streets become deserted, especially on sweltering summer afternoons. Some mayors have even decreed that it is prohibited to make noise during siesta hours.Traditional-style nappers get into pyjamas and jump into bed, while most people doze off in front of the television or on a park lawn.Modern life has taken a heavy toll on the custom, and only around 10 per cent of Spaniards now have time for regular siestas.Yet just as the custom is weakening in Spain, scientists are busy trying to resuscitate it and to spread it to other countries as well.“There is no doubt that the siesta has a biological basis,” sleep expert Scott Campbell of New York’s Cornell University told the daily El Mundo.“Six hours of sleep for a man,” Napoleon Bonaparte reportedly said, “seven for a woman and eight for a fool.” But others ranging from Leonardo da Vinci to Winston Churchill are known to have been dedicated nappers, and there seems little doubt that sleeping improved their already considerable creativity.The African ancestors of man inhabited regions around the equator, where hot afternoons tended to induce lethargy, and researchers believe our bodies are still set for sleeping in the afternoon when body temperature dips slightly.Drowsiness after lunch is also thought to be linked to digestion, though some scientists disagree.Lack of sleep is known to impair speech, memory and the ability to think. But research is now increasingly showing that it can also weaken the immune system, lead to weight gain and diabetes, and cause signs of premature aging such as wrinkles in the skin.Modern employees can mask signs of fatigue with coffee, but stimulants cannot aid the recovery of an overstimulated brain, and companies pay a heavy price in the form of reduced productivity.Countless road accidents are caused by sleepiness, and some of the world’s worst industrial accidents have occurred at night or in the early morning hours when operators with major responsibility were dangerously tired.Companies are now beginning to realize the usefulness of napping, and some U.S. firms have introduced “nap lounges” for “power naps”.In the same way, some Spanish masseurs are offering comfortable, reclining chairs for clients who have no time to go home for a siesta during their lunch break.Yet modern schedules allow only for a limited scope in adjusting to the natural rhythm of their bodies, and Spanish experts say many people do not even know how to take a siesta correctly.It does not matter so much whether you drop off in the subway or at your office desk, as long as you are comfortable – but there is one golden rule. “The siesta should not exceed 30 minutes, because otherwise it will interfere with night-time sleep,” neurologist Emilio Rodriguez explained.Napping for longer than half an hour will also make you drowsy for the rest of the day. The nap should, however, last at least 15 minutes to allow the sleeper to get a dose of the “deep sleep” which allows our brains to regenerate.If your eyes refuse to close, just laying down and relaxing your mind is also effective.The only group to which naps could be harmful are elderly people with untreated heart problems, as waking up quickens the heart beat, El Mundo reported.Napping could become an important remedy for a chronic lack of sleep in industrialized societies, experts say.The fast pace of the working world and new leisure opportunities have cut the average number of sleeping hours from 10 hours a day in 1910 to only 5 to 7 hours today, according to one U.S. study.
