Taking an afternoon nap can be blissful as a few minutes of closing your eyes can accelerate your energy and make you feel refreshed. This helps you to get rid of the sluggishness, irritability, and tiredness if you have a sleep deficit the past night and keeps you energized the whole day. Long afternoon naps for more than half an hour can make you feel groggy all day. An unhealthy addiction to afternoon naps can make you susceptible to diseases like diabetes, heart issues, and high blood pressure among others.
According to recent research, longer midday naps of more than 30 minutes may lead to a risk of higher BMI, higher blood pressure, and diseases associated with heart disease and diabetes. Taking power naps for 30 minutes or less is less likely to have high blood pressure.
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The research involved 3,000 people from a Mediterranean community where midday naps are known as siestas. The researchers investigated the link between siestas and their duration and obesity and metabolic syndrome
It has been found that people who took siestas of 30 minutes or longer were found to have a higher BMI, higher blood pressure, and other conditions associated with heart disease and diabetes when compared to those who did not take naps. Furthermore, those who took short naps were less likely to have elevated systolic blood pressure than those who did not take siestas. Also, daytime sleeping can lead to sleeplessness at night.
The required average hours of sleep for adults must range from 7-8 hours. Sleeplessness may cause fatigue, tiredness, and lack of motivation and zeal.
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Moreover, longer siestas are associated with sleeping late at night and eating, increased energy intake at lunch, and smoking. Sleeping immediately after a meal may cause lowered basal metabolic rates and this in turn leads to weight gain.