Siesta Smarts

Don't miss any Bottom Line Secrets. Add our address, bottomlinesecrets@news.bottomlinepublishing.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here. April 6, 2011 Did You Know You Could Tap Your Pain Away? Indulge Your Way to a Long Life Blast Away High Cholesterol. Lose 67 Points in Just 28 Days Scams That Catch Young Adults... and Other People, Too Erase Tumors in 2 Months Dear healthwellness82@gmail.com, If you like to take a nap every afternoon but feel like you’re being lazy, you’ll love this advice from Sara Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California in San Diego and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life. She tells why naps actually can improve your health -- even help you live longer -- and how to "design" the right kind of nap to meet your particular health goals. Getting conned out of cash by computer scammers is a wake-up call no that one needs -- Audri Lanford, PhD, codirector of ScamBusters.org, tells how to protect yourself from fraudsters, online and offline. All the best, Jessica Kent Editor BottomLineSecrets.com Don’t forget to check out Bottom Line President Marjory Abrams’ latest blog posting: Really Big Laugh. And don’t forget to share your thoughts on the blog with Margie. Did You Know You Could Tap Your Pain Away? Literally, this is the craziest thing but it can really help you overcome sadness, fear, pain and stress. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but I tried this crazy "tapping thing" and it really worked! This is definitely worth trying out. Find out more here... Indulge Your Way to a Long Life Sara Mednick, PhD If you’re like most Americans, you probably consider napping an indulgence. What you may not realize: Napping is widely known to sharpen mental fitness (including memory), and it also confers significant overall health benefits. Important finding: When researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Athens Medical School recently followed about 23,000 healthy Greek adults (average age 53), they found that study participants who napped at least 30 minutes three times a week or more were 37% less likely to die from heart disease and stroke over a six-year period. How to get the greatest health benefits from napping... IT’S TIME TO NAP! Humans are biologically programmed to nap. Our bodies experience a slight drop in physiological processes such as body temperature, blood pressure and the secretion of digestive juices (at around 2 pm for people who awaken at 8 am) -- similar to the larger dips that occur at night. These drops signal the body that it’s time to sleep. There’s strong scientific evidence showing that people who nap are more alert, make better decisions, score significantly higher on creativity and memory tests and have better motor function after napping compared with people who don’t nap. Surprising fact: Despite the popular notion that lunch makes people sleepy due to the digestion process, research shows that it’s actually the body’s temperature drop that is responsible. This temperature drop occurs whether or not you eat lunch. Why napping provides so many benefits: Napping just 20 minutes is enough time for restorative processes that occur during sleep to take place. THE RIGHT -- AND WRONG -- WAY TO NAP Here are my five secrets for getting the most from your naps -- and some common mistakes to avoid... SECRET 1. Make a 20-minute nap part of your daily routine, like exercising and brushing your teeth. Common mistake: Squeezing in a nap whenever you can. My recommendation: Take a nap at the same time every day (even if you don’t feel sleepy) so that your body adjusts to falling asleep then. Because most Americans have trained themselves to not nap, the instinct needs to be relearned. The ideal time to take a nap from a biorhythm standpoint is six hours after awakening for the day. Example: If you usually wake up at 7 am, your best napping time will be around 1 pm. Of course, your exact nap time may depend on your daily activities. Just don’t nap within three hours of your bedtime. SECRET 2. Choose a comfortable, quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Common mistake: Napping in your living area at home or in an office at work. Even if you’re not disturbed by noise or other interruptions, you will still feel the emotional tug of your daily activities. My recommendation: Go to a place unrelated to daytime tasks, such as your bedroom, an empty conference room, a park or your car with the seat reclined and the window slightly cracked so that you get some fresh air. Also, try earplugs if you have trouble drifting off to sleep. Or consider using a white-noise machine to block out distracting sounds. New option: The Apple iPhone White Noise App is very effective at blocking out noise. SECRET 3. Cover yourself with a light blanket or jacket, if possible. This will make you more comfortable because your body temperature is lower than usual while napping. Common mistake: Many people think that they need to be in a darkened room to nap. This may not be true. Research being conducted at the University of California, San Diego’s sleep laboratory has found no effect from different levels of light on a person’s ability to nap. Possible reason: Since napping appears to be programmed into us, we may have evolved to fall asleep for brief periods during daylight without a need for melatonin, the sleep hormone that the body produces only in darkness. SECRET 4. Set an alarm to go off after 20 minutes. Use whatever is most convenient -- an alarm on your watch or cell phone, for example. The Nap App on the Apple iPod functions as an alarm that awakens nappers with a tone or vibration. Using an alarm will prevent you from napping too long. It also allows you to relax, because you won’t have to worry about the clock. Interesting fact: Even when nappers thought they were awake throughout their nap times, researchers’ anecdotal observations have shown that the nappers usually did dip into light sleep, which can help with alertness and motor performance. Common mistake: Napping for more than 30 minutes. These longer naps take you from light "Stage 2" sleep into deeper "Stage 3" and "Stage 4" sleep, which are harder to wake up from and will leave you groggy. My recommendation: If you would like to take a longer nap, make sure that it lasts for 60 to 90 minutes. That’s long enough to move through the deeper sleep stages and return to lighter Stage 2 and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep -- also known as "dreaming sleep." This type of longer nap has the added benefit of stimulating the brain regions that integrate newly learned information into your long-term memory. New finding: In a recent study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, 39 healthy adults were given a rigorous learning exercise at noon. Half of them then took a 90-minute nap at 2 pm, while the other half didn’t. When doing new exercises at 6 pm, the group that had napped did significantly better than those who did not nap. SECRET 5. Go back to sleep for five minutes if you feel groggy from over-napping. If you’re groggy, this means that you have moved into the deeper stages of sleep. Going back to sleep for five minutes will allow you to move further out of those sleep stages. If you find that you’re groggy after a 20-minute nap: Shorten your nap to 10 minutes to avoid progressing into deeper sleep. WHEN NAPPING MAY MEAN TROUBLE Even though the bulk of research has found that napping is a healthful practice, one widely publicized study found the opposite -- specifically, that older women who take excessive daily naps are more likely to die. The study subjects (age 69 and older) who died napped the longest (more than three hours daily). They were 44% more likely to die from any cause and 58% more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than those who did not report taking naps. The details of the research results suggest that the study participants had underlying sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea (temporary cessation of breathing during sleep) or an illness such as depression or heart disease. Key fact not widely reported: The same study found that women who napped three hours or less per week had no increased mortality. In addition, those who slept nine to 10 hours per 24-hour period (overnight sleep plus naps) were at greater risk of dying than those who slept eight to nine hours total in the same time period. Researchers are unsure whether these findings would also apply to men. My advice: If you’re sleeping excessively at night, consult a sleep doctor, who will place you on a strict sleep schedule that will not include napping. To find a sleep clinic near you that is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, go to www.SleepCenters.org. Bottom Line/Health interviewed Sara Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. In addition to authoring numerous published studies on napping, she is coauthor of Take a Nap! Change Your Life (Workman) and the recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Mentored Research Career Scientist Award. www.SaraMednick.com Blast Away High Cholesterol. Lose 67 Points in Just 28 Days The big drug companies don't want you to know about the alternative cures that can make their drugs obsolete. The alternative medicine believers think drugs and surgery are bad ideas. Guess what? They're both dead wrong. Finally, a maverick MD has dared to identify the world's best cures from both sides of the medical aisle. These are the real forbidden cures you want... Read on... Scams That Catch Young Adults... and Other People, Too Audri Lanford, PhD Many scams rope in people who are not yet wise to the ways of the world, says scam tracker Audri Lanford, PhD, codirector of ScamBusters.org. Here is her advice for young adults that may benefit us all... If it’s spam, it’s probably a scam. Don’t respond to it. Don’t even open it, because spam may corrupt your computer and can lead to identity theft. If you receive an E-mail, phone call or text message about an account that needs to be "verified," contact the company or bank independently. Don’t display your full name in on-line profiles on social networking sites, and be very cautious about entering your street address. Spammers troll the Internet for personal information. Also, avoid E-mail surveys that ask for detailed information. When posting a résumé, leave out your address and phone number. Instead, note that the information is available upon request. Common scams today... Overpayment scams involve transactions in which people receive checks for more than they are due. Example: A college graduate advertises -- say, on Craigslist.org -- for a roommate. One respondent seems perfect, and the two agree on terms. The prospective roommate sends a check for a larger amount than the required deposit, then explains that he made a mistake and asks for a refund for the overpayment. He gets his refund -- but eventually the bank informs the victim that the original check was fraudulent. Self-defense: Accept only cashier’s checks from a local bank for the exact amount you are due. Make sure that the funds have not only cleared but also have been collected by the bank. And don’t assume that having a stranger’s phone number means that you can track him/her down. Scammers often use disposable cell phones. The Nigerian E-mail scam is still alive and well. Targets receive messages from foreigners (not necessarily in Nigeria, though that’s where the scam started) who supposedly have access to an inheritance or other assets in their homeland that they will share with the right person in exchange for helping them gain access to it. As the scam plays itself out, money is requested to pay fees, taxes, etc. -- but the expected payout never materializes. Lottery scams with E-mails promise that big prizes will be yours after you pay various fees and "taxes." The victims pay. The prizes never arrive. Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Audri Lanford, PhD, codirector of ScamBusters.org. Erase Tumors in 2 Months "Within two months, every tumor had shrunk, dried up and fallen off," said Tom to Dr. Gary Null about the miraculous disappearance of his rapidly spreading cancer. Tom had already gone through surgery once for skin cancer on his forehead. Unfortunately, his skin cancer was melanoma. Just 10 days after the operation, the cancer was back with a vengeance. It reappeared on his forehead, and quickly spread to his arm, upper body and chest. Four doctors all agreed: There was nothing they could do to cure this cancer. They all still wanted to operate. But Tom wanted to live -- not just get sliced up. Read on to learn what Tom did to save his life... Important: Help your friends get much more out of life -- forward this E-letter to them. Better: Send it to many friends and your whole family. This is a free weekly e-mail service of BottomLineSecrets.com and Boardroom Inc. Boardroom Inc. 281 Tresser Boulevard Stamford, CT 06901-3229 ATTN: Web Team You received this e-mail because you have requested it. You are on the mailing list as healthwellness82@gmail.com. Or... a friend forwarded it to you. Disclaimer: Bottom Line Secrets publishes the opinions of expert authorities in many fields. 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