We’ve all heard it before: naps can help those who have trouble sleeping at night to feel refreshed and more rested during the day.

Yet a recent article on Medical News Today sings the praises of naps for helping you solve everyday problems more creatively.

How do you like that?

According to the article, researchers at  the University of California San Diego suggest that “REM (rapid eye movement) sleep directly enhances creative processes more than any other sleep or wakeful state.”

REM sleep is a stage of healthy sleep, and it can indeed be arrived at during a nap. So, if you’re working on a new project or challenge, a little shuteye during the process may help you come up with more creative ways of addressing it. According to these researchers, “REM sleep stimulates associative networks helping the brain to make new and useful connections between unrelated ideas, the key to creativity.”

My husband is an avid nap-taker. He wakes very early in the morning. After a couple of hours doing something, he’ll lay down on the couch or the bed for a little rest. His naps usually last for 20 minutes or so. Not long. But he’s much more clear-minded afterward.

I know this is not very scientific, but whatever works, works for me.

Photo Credit: Steve Weaver

I have sleep apnea and I treat it with the help of a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine.

It’s brilliant, really. The machine forces air into your nose to keep the airway open during sleep. Your doctor actually “prescribes” the amount of pressure for you, based on the data gathered from your sleep study.

Of course, one uses a mask to do this. Which could be uncomfortable at best.

My own mask does not cover my mouth. I’ve been using it for a little over five years. The masks come in different sizes; even the petite one I buy is a touch too large for my face. This causes gaps during the night.

Noisy. I can snore. Or whine, like wind through a small tunnel. Or gurgle.

Drives my husband crazy.

I’m due for a visit to the doctor, to review my CPAP’s prescription. But I’m also going to check out what’s new out there for me in terms of masks. Perhaps if my mouth were also covered, I wouldn’t drive my husband quite so crazy.

Plus the whole contraption may work more efficiently in helping me to get my precious sleep.

Photo Credit: ~Twon~

My book club recently read, “My Stroke of Insight,” by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

Dr. Taylor likes to say she lost her “left mind” during a massive stroke that immobilized the left hemisphere of her brain. She was 37 years old when this happened; during her recovery she slept and slept some more. In fact, “honor the healing power of sleep” is number 10 on Dr. Taylor’s list of “Forty Things I Needed the Most” in recovery.

A neuroanatomist, Dr. Taylor’s discoveries about the brain led her to be invited to speak at the famed TED Conference last year. As a scientist, she was able to study her own brain functions (motion, speech, feelings) through the stroke itself and then recovery.

Seven years later, her brain continued to need 11 hours of sleep, then stabilized at nine and a half, although Dr. Taylor considers herself a “happy napper.”

You don’t need to go through a stroke to honor the healing power of sleep, though. Just ask anyone who doesn’t.

Photo credit: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

[youtube 1nDZA7SwFpA]
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor on Oprah’s Soul Series