Day #17: Afternoon sleep 100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017

Day #17:     Afternoon sleep
100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017


Do you sleep in the afternoons? From the time I was a kid I’ve liked to sleep in the afternoon. I remember in nursery or up to 1st standard we had a sleeping period. All the kids had a bedroll – actually a woven mat that we brought out after lunch and had to take rest. That habit is installed so deeply that even in the higher classes I would doze off in the first period for at least 10 mins. The time between 1:50 and 2:00 pm was the drowsiest for me and I would invariably close my eyes and doze off.
In college we had an half hour bell in every session. So it was convenient to take a shuteye for 10 mins before 2 pm and thank fully I’ve never been caught in the act.
Once I started working it became a little more difficult to catch up on my beauty sleep in the afternoon. Sleeping at the desk is considered an affront and a bad example for the staff so I had to be active to prevent the drowsiness from setting in. But once in business and since the office was most times close to home I could take time off for lunch and a snooze and came back very refreshed for further action for the rest of the day.
Afternoon snooze is very essential for rejuvenating your body and giving you the energy for the balance part of the day. I noticed that most officers in the armed forces have a snooze room adjacent to their office.  In some meditteranean countries it is the national practice to close shop for siesta. 1 to 4 pm is rest time and even Goa followed it till just a few years back.
Some people take a power nap of just 5 to 10 mins. This is equivalent to a full 4 hours sleep. And those who actually sleep 2 to 4 hours in the afternoon become pretty lethargic and sorry to use the word lazy for the rest of the day. At least that is my experience. If I get anything from 5 mins to 30 mins sleep it is very refreshing. If I sleep for 2 hours or more, the rest of the day is pretty much a washout, with the evening becoming longer and longer.
7 Benefits of afternoon nap:
1.       Improves memory
2.       Lowers your blood pressure
3.       Calms your nerves
4.       Makes you more alert
5.       Enhances creativity
6.       Boosts willpower
7.       More healthy and powerful than coffee
I’m grateful that I have the gift of taking short naps after lunch and coming back recharged. I love the rest and the energy that comes from having taken the short nap.

Do you?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day #27: Our world (100 days gratitude challenge)

Image
Day #27: Our world 100 days of gratitude This morning at 5 am when I took Alfie for a walk I noticed the road was filled with the remnants of yesterday's festivities. Paper, cardboard, plastic covers. gunpowder, rocket launchers, bottles, buckets, mugs, and tons of muck. I feel sorry for the cleaning staff who have to labour to clear this. Rains may help if it comes pouring now. We humans have a unique relationship with our planet. We believe that whatever we do our planet will correct itself and come back to how we found it. We don't know or care who is cleaning up behind us. Fortunately for us, our planet has taken care of itself so far. It has taken all the abuse we threw at it and corrected itself. I wonder how long this party can continue before it gives up. Do you notice how our planet is learning to adapt herself to our ways? She is over 4.5 billion years old. She managed to see her way through dinosaurs for à few million years. Primitive mankind is about 200,000 y...
Read more

Day 74: Smile 100 Day Gratitude Challenge

Image
Day 74: Smile 100 Day Gratitude Challenge Today I was going with my friend to the city. At the toll he handed out a biscuit packet to the toll collector after swiping his toll card.  The toll collector first wondered  what was being handed to him and then when he realised what it was, his face broke into a big smile. It absolutely lit up his face and all of us in the car smiled in return.  It struck me then that a smile will almost always elicit a return smile. It’s the simplest and easiest thing to give anyone and you will get it back in return multifold. It improves the mood of the giver and the receiver. I’m grateful for the smile. It is the simplest and warmest gift we can gift anyone. It is easy to do and there is no limit to how much we can give. Benefits of Smiling ·         Smiling is contagious Even in bad situations, if you smile, others are likely to mimic the expression. ·         Smiling lowers stress ...
Read more

Day #53: Ability to stand up after every fall (100 Day Gratitude Challenge)

Image
Day #53:     Ability to stand up after every fall (100 Day Gratitude Challenge) Have you seen a baby learn to walk? The baby makes countless attempts to stand before actually standing isn’t it? The baby first learns to roll over and after many weeks becomes good at it. Then she would attempt to sit up and will fall in the attempt a thousand times before actually being able to sit up. Finally, the baby will hold on to something and pull herself up to be able to stand on her feet. She will wobble back and forth and plonk down and then promptly try once again. This attempt again will be repeated a hundred times before she finally learns to stand. Only after this does she keep one foot in front of the other and take the first few tentative steps. The art of walking cannot be mastered in just one stroke. We all know it. But when we become adults we suddenly start believing that whatever I take up I must do well and I shall do it well the very first attempt...
Read more