Napping Day remedy for daylight saving time

Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.

— English novelist Anthony Burgess

Many of us receive emails about “national days.” There is Chocolate Covered Raisin Day (March 24), Plan Your Epitaph Day (April 6) and Skyscraper Appreciation Day (Aug. 10) to name three.

Along with Fill Our Staplers Day, Baked Scallops Day, Girl Scout Day and International Fanny Pack Day, today is Napping Day. It’s the Monday after daylight saving time begins.

According to whenisholiday.com, Napping Day was invented in 1999 by Dr. William Anthony and his wife, Camille. Their goal was to highlight the advantages of quick nap taking.

Many days I head home from work planning on a short siesta of sorts, but I find myself just lying there thinking of all the things I need to do or might be missing.

I found information about napping on the website of the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic. org) and wanted to share it for those who, like me, find it hard to nap or don’t realize there could be health benefits involved.

Napping, they write, does offer benefits, which include relaxation, reduced fatigue, increased alertness, improved mood and improved performance in skills such as reaction time and memory.

But napping is not for everyone. Some people find it hard to sleep during the day or have trouble if they try to sleep somewhere besides their own bed. On top of the positive effects, napping can have negative effects, like feeling groggy or disoriented after waking. Short naps generally don’t affect nighttime sleep, but long or frequent ones can interfere with your sleep at night.

Reasons to consider making time for a nap range from new fatigue or unexpected sleepiness to having to adjust for a long work shift.

To get the most out of your nap, the article suggests:

Keep naps short. Aim to nap for only 10 to 30 minutes. The longer the nap the more groggy you might be when you wake up.

Take naps in the afternoon. The best time, they say, is usually mid-afternoon, 2 or 3 p.m. This is the time we might experience post-lunch sleepiness or a lower level of alertness. Naps taken at this time are less likely to interfere with nighttime sleep. But there are individual factors that can play a role in determining the best time.

Create a restful environment. Try to do it in a quiet, dark place with a comfortable room temperature and few distractions.

When you wake up, give yourself time before resuming activities, particularly those that require a quick or sharp response.

But if you find that you are experiencing a need for naps and there’s no obvious cause of fatigue in your life, talk to your doctor.

ON THE OTHER HAND

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35 percent or more of Americans report they don’t get seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

An article on the website of the American Diabetes Association (diabetes.org), states that sleep deprivation has consequences that might include Type 2 diabetes. For some, they say, preventing or controlling diabetes could be as simple as getting an extra hour or two of sleep a night.

There have been many studies that point to sleep as a factor in diabetes, but there is little said on what the connection is biologically. While research into the link between sleep and our metabolism is still in its infancy, one goal is to discover how behavior that’s out of step with our body’s rhythms could trigger high blood sugar or raise the risk for the disease.

Eating or sleeping at the wrong times could upset the harmony between our body’s internal clock and behavior. It could be awhile before researchers uncover a connection, but, the association says, that doesn’t mean better sleep won’t contribute right away to progress in preventing or treating diabetes.