Why you should be proud to sleep on the job (The Washington Post)

Why you should be proud to sleep on the job

Winston Churchill was a British politician and a recognised wartime leader of the 20th century. He was also a well-known historian, a writer, and an artist. The most interesting thing about him thought doesn’t have to do with all these things he did, but how he did them. He was known for taking naps from time to time at work to renew vital forces. He was capable of sleeping 20 minutes or more even when the country he led was being bombed. Therefore if Churchill, who beated Hitler during the Second World War, could disconnect taking afternoon siestas so can we.

Besides the list of people who did this doesn’t end here, some of the best minds in history such as Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon or Albert Einstein napped too. Even Salvador Dali used siestas to get ready to work as sleep leads to a roughly 40% boost in creativity.

Anyhow, this is not a myth, research has shown that naps refresh our body, make us more attentive and improve our moods. On top of all a study found that people who took naps where less likely to die of heart disease as sleep lowers down blood pressure. If we think about it, it makes sense as the majority of mammals sleep in short periods throughout the day.

Nowadays we can see that the use of these siestas is increasing. There are some countries that have overcome nap shame, in some places like Japan when they see someone napping they think they are getting ready to put 100% in during the afternoon. What’s more, there are companies, such as Nike and Google, that offer places for their employees to take a rest.

I have chosen this article because the title got my eye. These days there are a lot of studies that are being carried out on this subject and there are being a lot of discoveries related to the lack of sleep. I think this article is interesting as in the society we live in we don’t give sleep the importance we should.

Link to article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/03/05/why-you-should-be-proud-to-sleep-on-the-job/