Wednesday, July 9, 2014

SEISTA GOOD FOR HEALTH, START DAYDREAMING

Dalliance with your afternoon siesta or power nap is packed with health benefits and experts suggest that a half-hour snooze can actually boost your performance at work by reducing stress and recharging the energy levels.

Sleep specialist Dr. Deelip Chaterjee said that a half an hour siesta in the daytime helps in reducing stress by relaxing the body, but sleeping more than half and hour messes up with the night’s rest and so is not recommended.

“Snoozing for more than half an hour could interfere with your night’s rest and so is not recommended,” Dr. Chaterjee who practices in the US, but has opened a centre in Guwahati for people having sleeping disorders, said here.

A midday rest or siesta is common in most countries with hot climate. The Spanish word siesta derives from the Latin word Sexta Hora meaning sixth hour. Spaniards are strict adherents of siesta so are several communities around the world, including many in India.

 Several great leaders could not do without their power nap. In fact, Winston Churchill coined the word power nap as he believed that having his forty winks in the afternoon helped him to think better! Napoleon, Leonardo Da Vinci, John F Kennedy, Einstein, Thomas Edison amongst others, celebrated siesta almost every day in their lives.

“Edison had an interesting way for his siesta. He used to sit in a couch in the afternoon holding a spoon in his hand and placing a plate at his foot. He used to sleep that way until the spoon dropped from his hand onto the plate and wake him up in about half an hour,” Dr. Chaterjee said.

The physician suggested that an alarm should be set for half an hour’s rest if anyone wants to start this age-old practice to rejuvenate the body and mind. It is unlikely though that by practicing siesta there are greater chances of epiphany and inventing something path-breaking as a light bulb, but just to join the club of daydreamers, give it a shot! 

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