Since one of the most infamously exhausting events in our country took place this weekend, we are of course here to talk about it. But even more importantly, this Monday holds the honor of being the bearer of multiple separate holidays, two of the which are more fun for restricted groups of people than the other.
First of all, this Monday is Pi Day. If you are to write out the irrational number π, you would get 3.14159265359, but the first five post-comma digits are the most widely known – 3.14159. However, as most of us prefer to round up our numbers, pi generally goes by 3.1416. So, with today being March 14th of 2016, it’d technically pi day – 03.14.16.
But that’s not the most important thing celebrated today. Invented by the Boston University’s Dr. William Anthony in 1999, today is the 17th anniversary of the National Napping Day. Of course, this is a result of daylight savings coming into effect last night, Sunday through Monday.
But why is it important to honor the National Napping Day? Here are a few of the greatest benefits naps can provide us, as well some trivia based on this most important and overlooked of activities.
First of all, napping might very well save your life. It has been confirmed in several studies already that the first two days after daylight savings there is an eight percent increase in the number of cardiovascular incidents – strokes and heart attacks. Naps, on the other hand, work wonders for lowering blood pressure.
According to Dr. Manolis Kallistratos, lead researcher in a Greek study involving four hundred middle aged men and women,
Midday naps seem to lower blood pressure levels and may probably also decrease the number of required antihypertensive medication.
But napping isn’t by any means a new thing. On the contrary, people have only been sleeping for extended periods during the night since the Industrial Revolution. Before artificial illumination, humans would sleep in chunks of three or four hours, whenever they felt like it. Two of these a day, combined with one or two short naps were all the rest people needed back then.
Two of the most influential people in history, Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, both slept for four hours every night, with the occasional one or two naps during the day. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Einstein slept for 10 hours every night, and he also had daytime naps.
And that’s not the end of the benefits. Increased creativity, more efficiency, and raised productivity are all benefits associated with a thirty to ninety minute nap during the day.
Image source: Pixabay
