Napping may be beneficial for your brain - here’s how

(Image: Pixabay CC0) Dr Victoria Garfield (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL), Valentina Paz (University of the Republic (Uruguay) and MRC Unit) and Hassan S Dashti of Harvard University share the results of their new study on the benefits of napping in The Conversation. Sleep plays an important role in keeping the brain healthy, which is why people are advised to get at least 7-9 hours each night. When people have difficulties with sleep, for example, they usually feel more stressed. This is because a lack of sleep activates the body's stress response, which affects different brain and body systems. This could lead to stress-related disorders. Napping also appears to be beneficial to the brain - with research showing that even brief naps of 5-15 minutes can instantly improve how well you perform mentally. But could frequent napping have long-term benefits for our brains? Our latest study shows that they might - we found that habitual naps may help preserve brain health.