You know It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single person in possessionof a ridiculous amount of work, must be in want of a nap.Or something like that.Naps are an easy way to recharge during a long day.And, according to the Internet, there is a way to make them even better: coffee.Just drink a cup before a twenty-minute snooze, and you all supposedly wake up even morealert.For once, this isn't some fanciful thinking that to debunk.Coffee naps do seem to be more effective than either coffee or naps alone.It is thanks to two processes: how your body knows it is tired, and how it responds to caffeine.As you go about your day, doing whatever stuff you do, your body is making and breaking downmolecules called ATP, or adenosine triphosphate.They are basically your body is biochemical energy supply.And when they degrade, they ultimately leave behind a few things, including one key neurotransmittercalled adenosine.Throughout the day, these molecules gradually build up and trigger receptors in your brainthat signal to your body that it is getting tired.Sleeping is kind of like hitting a reset button.During the day, enzymes are breaking down adenosine, but since your body is producingso much of it, it can't clear it all out.When you sleep, though, you don't produce as much adenosine, so it gives those enzymesa chance to catch up.Your overall adenosine levels drop, and fewer receptors are activated in the morning.The reason coffee or specifically, caffeine works so well at keeping you awake isbecause it has a similar shape to adenosine.So it can slip in and bind to some of those receptors without activating them.This blocks adenosine molecules from reaching their targets, so your brain makes fewer mtired signals.Now, the coffee nap takes these two processes and smashes them together to make the ultimate,super-efficient snooze.See, once you down that Starbucks, it takes around twenty minutes for the caffeine moleculesto travel through your body to your brain.Instead of just sitting around waiting for that to kick in, the idea behind coffee napsis to prepare for a caffeine overload.As you sleep, your brain breaks down adenosine more effectively, because it is not beingflooded with so many new molecules.Then, when the caffeine rushes in twenty minutes later, there are fewer adenosine moleculesfor it to compete with.The caffeine has a better chance at claiming those receptors before the adenosine can increaseagain and start making you all sleepy.Most people recommend only a twenty-minute coffee nap, because you probably won't gointo a deep sleep, which can be harder to wake up from.So far, scientists haven't done studies to see how many adenosine receptors are affectedby this method.But multiple papers have shown that coffee naps made participants better at things likememory tests or driving simulations, compared to coffee or naps alone.At the end of the day, nothing really beats a full night of sleep.But coffee naps will do for an afternoon pick-me-up.Now, you just need to convince your boss to buy some nap pods for the break room.
Congratulations @sachinswami! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!