Refreshing nap: is 30 minutes enough to recover from a sleepless night?

    Refreshing nap: is 30 minutes enough to recover from a sleepless night?

    Loved nap. A panacea for our health. And now comes the scientific confirmation. New research conducted at the Sorbonne University has shown that 30 minutes are enough to reduce stress and help our immune system, even after a sleepless night


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    Adored nap. A panacea for our health. And now comes the scientific confirmation. New research conducted at the Sorbonne University has shown that they are enough 30 minutes to reduce stress and help our immune system, even after a sleepless night.

    The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, confirmed the benefits of the short nap given to the men, who had only slept two hours the previous night during the test.

    The researchers looked at the relationship between hormonal functioning and the sonno in a group of 11 healthy men between the ages of 25 and 32. They underwent two sleep sessions in a laboratory where food and lighting were strictly controlled.

    During one such experiment, participants' sleep was limited to two hours in one night, followed by a two-hour nap the next day for some and thirty minutes for others.

    The scientists then analyzed the subjects' urine and saliva to determine the effect of sleep deprivation, examining the altered levels of the hormones before and after the given naps.

    After a night of limited sleep, the volunteers presented levels of norepinephrine multiplied by two and a half times. The latter is a blood hormone but also a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in body response to stress, increasing heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar. The researchers found that noradrenaline levels became normal again after a nap.

    Lack of sleep also affects your levels interleukin-6, a protein that has antiviral properties contained in saliva. This hormone was much lower among study participants who slept little but also returned to normal levels after a short rest period.



    The study thus showed that a nap, even a short one, restores the body's hormone levels and proteins that fight stress, and at the same time, act on the correct functioning of the immune system. "Our work suggests that as little as 30 minutes of sleep can reverse the hormonal impact of a bad night," has explained Brice Faraut, researcher at the Sorbonne and one of the authors of the research. "This is the first study that shows that a nap is able to restore the health of the immune and neuro-endocrine systems."



    To keep in mind if you have the opportunity to allow yourself a few minutes of well-deserved rest.

    Francesca Mancuso

    READ also:

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    World Sleep Day: the 10 rules to rest well

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