Lhe siesta is a serious subject. Especially when you take her out of the hammock to confront her with some numbers. Worldwide, 50% to 70% of the working population complains of lack of sleep. And, in a study that thrilled all the French media in March 2019, Public Health France announced that we slept an average of 6:42 hours per night. This statistic revealed two things: first, we have lost 1.5 hours of daily sleep in fifty years. “Which means that at the end of the week we lost the equivalent of a full night”, alarmed Brice Faraut, doctor of neuroscience at the Sleep and Vigilance Center of the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris. Then, we are now below the seven hour mark, the minimum time recommended for a good recovery.
However, reminds Brice Faraut, lack of sleep entails health risks. Whether it’s overweight (the researcher found that five nights of less than five hours of sleep in a row was enough for healthy young people to gain up to 1.2 kg), less immune defenses effective, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes or depression. The finding is all the more embarrassing in that there is a denial of this situation, with many people thinking they are “little sleepers” when they are in fact chronically sleep deprived.
The problem is even more accentuated for shift workers with staggered hours, these difficult 3 × 8 or even 2 × 8, and for night workers (drivers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, workers, security guards, etc.), i.e. 20 % of the active population in France. For these permanently exhausted, the long and recuperative nap becomes a public health issue. Practicing it daily, as a night supplement, would reduce health costs and, quite simply, make you feel better.
The saving rest
Napping isn’t just free, prescription-free medicine. It can also save lives. By avoiding disasters caused by too much sleep deprivation. Doctor Eric Mullens mentions for example in his book, Learn to nap (Ed. Josette Lyon, 2017), the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, in 1986. The commission of inquiry incriminated, among other faults, the excessive fatigue of the officials on the ground (with a night of only two hours before departure). ten hours of stressful work until disaster strikes). He could also have cited the Chernobyl accident, where we find a similar deterioration in alertness due to lack of rest. Without going as far as such dramas, all it takes is an unfortunate “stroke” to endanger one’s life and that of others.
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