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Health & Fitness

Your Newborn: How Power Napping Helps You

Welcome to my blog. Power napping, favored by some of the most influential people in the world, is beneficial for new parents too.

Sleep When Your Baby Sleeps
The most common advice given to new parents is to sleep when your baby sleeps. If you're not used to sleeping during the day, you might think this advice is absurd. But perhaps think of sleep in terms of power napping. Power napping offers tremendous benefits.

Benefits
Research has shown that the power of napping is positive for your health of mind and body. Napping for 20 minutes or so in the middle of the day allows your brain to rest and regroup. Power napping gives you renewed energy to complete your day, not just a boost in energy for the task at hand. That alone is worth the few minutes of rest.

But there are even more benefits for you, including stress reduction, heart protection, ability to focus, improved memory, improved performance, greater endurance, and more patience. Now, I wonder, why aren't we doing this in America on a regular basis?

Am I just Being Lazy?
In order to fully enjoy power napping let's also address the psychological baggage sometimes attached to daytime sleep, namely that you might appear lazy. Remember, not all societies feel this way. But if it's your thought, perhaps this will help.

You might think of napping as a form of meditation, a tool for letting your thoughts come and go without paying too much attention to them, to clear your mind, and rejuvenate your brain, while relaxing your body.

Or you might think about napping like this. Since it's clearly expected, for you as a new parent, to be awake in the middle of the night to care for your baby, it should also be clearly expected for you to power nap in the middle of the day so you can, again, care for your new baby.

It's a Gift
As a new parent you'll find that if you rest, even a little, while your baby is sleeping, you will have more energy to deal with the awake times, more patience, more efficiency, and more understanding of this new relationship. You are going to give your all anyway, so why not build up your stores to make it possible for you to give more easily?

Consider indulging in this gift that brings you more basic happiness ... power napping.

For you and yours,

D. Fravert, RN
www.aboutyournewborn.com
 

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