How to Reduce Stress?

Take a nap. Average sleep duration is now twp hours shorter per night than it was 50 years ago. Sleeping less has been linked to an increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular problems generally.

In a recent study researchers split 85 healthy university students into two groups: The first group was allotted a 60-minute nap during the day when they had the opportunity to sleep; the other group did not sleep during the day.

Researchers asked the students to complete written assessements of sleep quality and complete a cardiovascular reactivity task, involving a complex mental addition exercises. The team measured the students blood pressure and pulse rates at regular intervals throughout the experiment, finding that daytime sleep seemed to have a restorative effect: students in the sleep condition reported lower scores of sleepiness, as compared to than those who did not sleep.

Although blood pressure and pulse rates rose in both groups between baseline and the stress phase, during the recovery phase, those who had napped had significantly lower average blood pressure readings than those who had not slept.

These results show that sleeping between 45 to 60 minutes during the day appears to facilitate blood pressure recovery after a mental stress task in the laboratory. Observing that: “These findings suggest daytime sleep may offer cardiovascular benefit in the form of greater cardiovascular recovery from psychological stress,” researchers urge further research “to better understand its role as a possible recuperative agent against suboptimal nocturnal sleep patterns