Sleepy Time!

The paper I'm doing starts to look decent by now (not that it's any guarantee for it being accepted of course), but I'm not going to have much time for blogging or anything until it's submitted. However, I saw an interesting, short article on midday naps in the Economist, and thought I'd point it out.

The article reports on some resent experimental research that shows that napping improves memory performance; about 1-1.5 hours is optimal. I really don't have too much time to comment on it, to say nothing of going through the original paper, but I didn't want to ignore it altogether. After all, sleep is something dear to all of us, and something that's been on my mind quite a bit lately (in the "Oh, for a few more hours of sleep" sense).

When you think about it, not having a siesta is pretty weird. Most cultures have condoned, or even encouraged, a longish break around midday. Our own bodies seem to have a pretty strong opinion on the matter too; I know I can't get a single thing done during the hour right after lunch. I usually sit half-asleep staring blankly at my work, or I spend the time with something that doesn't require much actual thinking - browsing the web, writing the blog, that sort of thing. But as this research points out, it's probably better to stop fighting it, lean back and take a real, refreshing nap instead.