在美国联邦政府大楼里打盹，是违规的。你没有看错，2019年，负责政府大楼的联邦机构表示，大楼内禁止睡觉。但实际上，成年人在白天小睡上一会儿，可以让思维变清晰，提高解决问题的能力，让人更加高效，甚至还能改善情绪。
科学研究证明，小睡真的有益，不过这取决于你睡的时间有多长、什么时候睡以及一些其他条件。最佳的小睡时长是20~30分钟，如果你的作息规律是在晚上睡觉，小睡最好在下午5点之前进行。之所以最好睡20~30分钟，是因为在这段时间内，你一般处于睡眠周期的N1阶段，即浅睡眠期，更容易醒来。如果你睡得更久，就会进入更深的睡眠阶段，可能会更难醒来，久睡后醒来也可能感觉昏昏沉沉、眩晕无力。短暂的小睡可以提高你的记忆力、信息处理能力、警觉性（也就是对突然发生的事情做出反应的能力，比如躲闪一辆突然转弯的汽车）。在很多方面，小睡还能提高你的精神敏锐度，这都是一些最为显著的好处。新加坡国立大学（National University of Singapore）睡眠与认知研究中心（Center for Sleep and Cognition）的梁丽芳（音译，Li Fang, Ruth Leong）和徐伟良（音译，Wei Liang, Michael Chee）在2022年的一项研究中，发现了上述短时间小睡对认知功能的益处。他们还发现，白天小睡能让人感觉更好。徐说，睡眠科学家对情绪的研究较少，但他和粱发现，疲惫的人常常脾气暴躁，而短暂的小睡则会让人更友好。白天睡一觉也并非只有好的一面，白天频繁打盹和长时间睡觉都可能是存在健康问题的征兆。高血压、代谢综合症、肥胖、阿尔茨海默病以及脑部炎症，这些都与更长时间的睡眠有关，即使是年轻人也是如此。所以，如果白天睡觉超过30分钟，或者一天要睡几次，可能意味着你的身体存在潜在的健康问题，应该去看看医生。此外，一些快速的小睡甚至可以提高创造力和解决问题的能力……[查看全文]
Quick Naps Are Good for Your Brain
Tanya Lewis: Today's show is about power naps. Turns out a short daytime snooze can sharpen your mind—if you do it for the right amount of time.Josh Fischman: Did you know that in the U.S. it is against the rules to nap in a federal government building?Lewis: No, I didn't! There are actually rules about that?Lewis: Wow, that's harsh. Then again, I think most people, at least most adults, look down on naps somewhat. Naps are things that babies do.Fischman: But what if I told you that short daytime naps for adults can sharpen the mind, help you solve problems and make you more productive? They improve your mood, too.Lewis: That makes sense—power naps are definitely a thing. But it still seems kind of taboo at work, at least in the U.S. Does it really boost your brain, though? You're not just saying that because you like naps, right?Fischman: I would like a quick snooze sometimes. But actually I'm saying that because scientists are learning these are real effects. And you and I have a colleague who looked into this.Lewis: That's right—Lydia Denworth, SciAm's Science of Health columnist.Fischman: Yep, Lydia. Her upcoming column is about naps. She got interested in this because she finds quick daytime naps really helpful. And I asked her about that.Hi Lydia, thanks for waking up and joining us.Lydia Denworth: [laughing] I'm glad to be here, Josh.Fischman: Now you've told me that you take a nap, right?Denworth: I do, just about every day.Fischman: And you're not ashamed!Denworth: Not anymore. I'm opening up about my nap habit.Fischman: Why aren't you ashamed anymore?Denworth: Well, because the science shows that my napping is virtuous. There is real power to napping. And though it does depend how long you do it and when you do it and a bunch of things, my napping turns out to fit right in the sweet spot. And so now I feel quite pleased that I have the ability to nap and that it refreshes me in the way that I always felt that it did.Lewis: I'm glad Lydia is taking the shame out of napping. So what's the sweet spot for naps? Ten minutes? An hour?Denworth: Well, the idea is that the best way to nap is to nap for just maybe 20 to 30 minutes and to do it before 5 P.M. if you keep regular daytime hours so it doesn't interfere with your nocturnal sleep. And the reason that 20 to 30 minutes is good has to do with where you are in sleep cycles during that time. So most of your sleep in 20 minutes will be light sleep, N1, and it makes it easier to wake up. If you sleep longer, you will go into a deeper phase of sleep that can be harder to wake up from.Lewis: That definitely rings true to me. I don't take naps that often. But when I do, I sometimes nap for too long and wake up feeling pretty groggy! So what are the benefits of these shorter naps?Denworth: You improve your memory, your information processing, your vigilance, which in scientific terms is your ability to respond to something sudden, like a swerving car. And there's a bunch of other ways in which it improves your mental acuity, but those are the things that show up most strongly.Lewis: That makes sense. I know they say if you're tired while driving, you should pull over and take a short nap. But I didn't know about the memory effect. If you take a 20 or 30 minute nap at, say, 1 P.M., it will actually improve your memory?Denworth: Yes, it will improve your recall in the subsequent hour or two after the nap. And so if you wake up feeling like, "Hey, I feel better able to do my work now," you're not wrong.Lewis: How did scientists figure this out? Did they have people take naps and then measure their recall?Fischman: That's exactly what researchers have been doing. Two of them are Ruth Leong and Michael Chee of the National University of Singapore. They work at the Center for Sleep and Cognition there. And in a 2022 study, they found the kind of cognitive benefits to short naps that Lydia was talking about.Also, a nap simply makes people feel better, they learned. Chee says that sleep scientists don't talk about mood enough. But he and Leong have found, not surprisingly, that tired people are grumpy people. Quick nappers, though, are nicer.Lewis: We could all use a bit more niceness, that's for sure. But not everything about napping is good. Frequent and longer daytime naps might actually be a sign of health problems, right?Fischman: Yeah, Lydia talked about that.Denworth: High blood pressure, metabolic syndrome—which is the combination of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other metabolic problems—obesity, Alzheimer's, brain inflammation, is linked to sleeping more, even in young people. So a whole host of things.Lewis: So longer naps—like, more than 30 minutes—several times a day could be a sign that there's an underlying health problem. And you should probably see a doctor.Lewis: But those quick power naps—the kind that Lydia is talking about—could be a really good thing. And there's evidence that they might even improve creativity and problem-solving...[full transcript]
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