The effects of lunch time napping on habitual nappers’ mental work efficiency in the afternoon and early evening: an empirical study from China

Guang-Jin Zhang, Fei-Fei Sun, Jian-Qiao Liao

.

DOI: 10.4236/health.2009.14046                

Abstract

30 college students who have the habit of lunch time napping (LTN) participated in experiments under two different conditions: Having lunch time napping and not having lunch time napping. They were asked to complete three tasks in-cluding vigilance reaction, short-term memory, addition arithmetic; their performance was re-corded automatically by computer during 3 dif-ferent periods in the afternoon and early eve-ning. The analysis about the experimental data showed that: as for habitual nappers, midafter-noon nap zone existed, LTN played a very im-portant role in overcoming it, and did great help in enhancing their vigilance in the afternoon and early evening, however, LTN didn’t bring sig-nificant positive effect to executing complex tasks (such as short-term memory and addition task) at the periods of time 16:30-17:30, 20:00- 21:00. Finally, this article discussed the conclu-sions and its significance.

Keywords

Lunch Time Napping; Mental Work

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Liao, J.Q. (1996) The effects of napping on human per-formance of vigilance. Ergonomics., 4, 29-32.
[2]	Macchi, M.M., Boulos, Z., Ranney, T., Simmons, L. and Campbell, S.S. (2002) Effects of an afternoon nap on nighttime alertness and performance in long-haul drivers. Accident Analysis and Prevention., 34, 825-834.
[3]	McEvoy, R.D. and Lack, L.L. (2006) Medical staff work-ing the night shift: can naps help? Medical Journal of Australia., 7, 349-350.
[4]	Mednick, S.C., Nakayama, K. and Cantero, J.L., et al. (2002) The restorative effect of naps on perceptual dete-rioration. Nature Neuroscience., 7, 676-680.
[5]	Backhaus, J. and Junghanns, K. (2006) Daytime naps improve procedural motor memory. Sleep Medicine., 7,508–512.
[6]	[6] Milner, C.E., Fogel, S.M. and Cote, K.A. (2006) Habitual napping moderates motor performance improvements following a short daytime nap. Biological Psychology., 73, 141–156.
[7]	Hayashi, M., Ito, S. and Hori, T. (1999) The effects of a 20-min nap at noon on sleepiness, performance and EEG activity. International Journal of Psychophysiology., 32, 173-180
[8]	Hashi, M., Makiko, W. and Hori, T. (1999) The effects of a 20 min nap in the mid-afternoon on mood, performance and EEG activity. Clini cal Neurophysiology., 110, 272–279.
[9]	Driskell, J.E. and Mullen, B. (2005) The efficacy of naps as a fatigue countermeasure: a meta-analytic integration. Human Factors., 2, 360-377.
[10]	Hayashi, M., Morikawa, T. and Hori, T. (2002) Cir-casemidian 12-hour cycle of slow wave sleep under con-stant darkness. Clinical Neurophysiology., 113, 1505-1516.
[11]	Broughton, R.J. (1998) SCN controlled circadian arousal and afternoon “nap zone”. Sleep Research Online., 1, 166-178.
[12]	Hayashi, M., Fukushima, H. and Hori, T. (2003) The effects of short daytime naps for five consecutive days. Sleep Research Online., 5, 13–17.
[13]	Taub, J.M. (1979) Effects of habitual variations in nap-ping on psychomotor performance, memory, and subjec-tive states. International Journal of Neuroscience., 9, 97-112.
[14]	Dinges, D.F., Orne, E.C., Evans, F.J. and Orne, M.T. (1981) Performance after naps in sleep-conductive and altering environments. In Johnson, L.C., Tepas, D.I., Colquhon, W.P. & Colligan, M.J. (Eds.), Biological Rhythms, Sleep and Shift Work. S. P. Medical and Scien-tific Books., New York, 539-552.
[15]	Lumley, M., Roehns, T., Zorick, F., Lamphere, J. and Roth, T. (1986) the alerting effects of naps in sleep-deprived subjects. Psychophysiology., 23, 403-408.
[16]	Naitoh, P. (1981) Circadian cycles and restorative power of naps. In Johnson, L.C., Tepas, D.I., Colquhon, W.P. & Colligan, M.J. (Eds.), Biological Rhythms, Sleep and Shift Work. S. P. Medical and Scientific Books., New York, 553-580.