Saved by the Siesta

Millions of people struggle every day against a chronic lack of sleep that exhausts them and threatens their health. There is a simple remedy: a daytime nap.

Saved by the Siesta explains how siestas work and the remarkable role they can play in overcoming the destructive effects on the brain and the body of a shortage of sleep — for a siesta is like a night’s sleep in miniature.

A daytime nap fulfils all the same functions as a night’s sleep — hormonal, purifying, curative, consolidating, and reinvigorating. It also has the same therapeutic values: it helps us to combat sleepiness, pain, depression, weak immunity, stress, hypertension, excess weight, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

But to take advantage of all this we need to be aware of the siesta’s subtleties: its various types; the correct body position to adopt; the times that are conducive to sleeping; the most effective duration; the stages of sleep that heighten awareness, cognitive performance, memory, and creativity; and how to getting to sleep quickly and wake up without feeling sleepy.

Saved by the Siesta provides all this information, and more. It is a lucid and accessible synthesis of the science of sleep, as well as a practical guide to the taking of naps to overcome disturbed night-time sleep.