I love naps. I’m such a good napper (can sleep anywhere, anytime–sleep is my super power) that Sarah gave me t-shirt that reads “I’m a professional naplete.” See above.

I was happy to read this week that good news that naps can lower your blood pressure.

The study showed that midday sleepers had a 5% lower average 24-hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure compared to patients who did not nap at midday. Even though this might seem like a minor difference, the lead researcher Dr Manolis Kallistratos said at the conference that even this small decrease “can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by up to 10%.” So a tiny drop is still of great significance.

Even better for the siesta snoozers, the study showed that a longer sleep was associated with a higher drop in blood pressure. One hour was found to be the time needed for the best results.

Kallistratos noted that there were a few limitations in the study that would be worth addressing for future research in the field. For starters, the study was only observational. It has to be assumed that it is the midday nap that is producing the positive effects in the patients, and not some other uncontrolled variable. Kallistratos is confident that this is the case since the blood pressure drop pattern seen at midday is similar to the drop people experience when they sleep at night.

The second is that the hypertension symptoms in the study participants were very well controlled, but that might not be the case for everyone. So in future it could be worthwhile including participants whose hypertension was not so well-controlled, as Kallistratos thinks they could experience an even more significant blood pressure drop with a daytime doze.

It must also be noted that a nap is superior to just resting. Kallistratos commented that the biggest drop in blood pressure kicked in just before the REM phase, which suggests actual sleep is required to lower blood pressure to the levels observed.

“Μidday sleep is a habit that nowadays is almost a privilege due to a nine to five working culture and intense daily routine,” said Kallistratos. However, given the potential benefits, making time for a midday nap might be an idea to sleep on.

I’ve been blogging about napping for while. My first post about it was five years ago. It was long enough ago that my hair is still brown (!) and the dog I’m napping with is my dearly departed Olivia (miss you so much!), not Cheddar.

One thing I am learning about this job is that I am “on” a lot more. I need 8 hours sleep a night to do it well. Usually I get that much on the weekend and then manage 6-7 hours a night during the week. It’s not enough.

These days I arrive at work to a fully scheduled day. There are no breaks unless a meeting ends early or if I arrive somewhere before the “travel time” between meetings allotted in my schedule is over.

There are two challenges: One is being with people all day. I say I’m a well disguised introvert. But this schedule taxes my disguise. The other is the issue of finding time to prepare for meetings or do the follow up after.

So easy, right? Get enough sleep.

Part of the problem is that I am not yet living in Guelph 7 days a week. Instead, my weekends are spent helping the family with house renos and packing up all the London stuff to get the house ready to go on the market. There’s driving between cities and they’re busy weekends with lots of physical work in them for everyone. I arrive back in Guelph late, late Sunday night and get up early Monday morning, not exactly ready for my busy weeks.

I’m going to commit to a weekday 10 pm bedtime for awhile since my weekend catch-up plan is no longer working.

Yawn! Hoping to avoid being like this kitten in meetings today.