Allison+S’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016

= = = I Want to Live in an America that Appreciates Naps More =

Don’t we all love napping… if you don’t, there is a door to my right and left. I’m just kidding I need you to listen because I am going to change your mind about it. Have you ever been so stressed and swamped with homework and other responsibilities and nap instead? As a professional napper, me too. Napping is important to me, maybe because I hardly get any sleep or the fact that I use it as my way of procrastination. Either way, when I nap I am happy Alli. When I don’t…. Ohhh we aren’t even going to discuss such a dark place.

There are so many benefits to taking naps, relaxation, reduced fatigue, increased alertness, improved mood, and improved performance which includes quicker reaction time and better memory. So the real question is, why don’t you appreciate naps more America? On a typical day, less than a third of us are taking naps. LESS THAN ONE THIRD. This number should be significantly higher. Three Thirds sounds like a good ratio to me. You might ask, well why should someone take naps? Well, not getting enough sleep can seriously affect the brain, and we have all encountered that problem. So a good fix to that problem is to take a short power nap. Before I get into the long list of side effects of not getting enough sleep, I would first like to mention that teens themselves should be getting around 9 hours of sleep every night in order for the brain to develop and repair the body. The average teen gets around 6 ½ to 7 hours of sleep a night… apparently they don’t go to Foothill. When puberty decides to do its thing in a body, the adolescent has an internal biological shift, meaning that the body will want to go to bed around 11 pm not 9 pm. Hey guys, this one’s for you. Did you know a lack of sleep can decrease your sperm count. Hey girls, don’t think I didn’t leave you out. Did you know a lack of sleep can cause…. PIMPLES. In all seriousness, there are a plethora of negative side affects on your body if a person does not get enough sleep, especially in our prime growing years. Side effects may include lost memories, anger, impaired wit, hallucinations, confusion, false memories, cerebral shrinkage, slurred speech, weight gain, higher chance of getting sick, mood swings, and an increase of risky decisions. This may include the decision to drive while being extremely tired. Did you know that driving while extremely tired is just as dangerous as driving intoxicated. Neither did I, until I looked it up. Driving drowsy causes more than 100,000 car crashes every year. 100,000.

So instead of just telling you how beneficial naps are, I am going to give you the best tips and tricks for an optimal nap. In order to take the best nap of your life, you first have to consider your sleep schedule. If you wake up around 6 am, you should be napping around 2 or 3 pm. Time your nap to be 20 minutes in a comfortable place, preferably a place that is dark with a comfortable temperature. I should warn that if you have trouble sleeping at night, 20 minutes should be the maximum length of nap you should take.

During the day, neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine are released to keep our body awake. Adenosine, another neurotransmitter is builds up in the bloodstream causing our body to become tired. When sleeping, the adenosine is broken down and serotonin and norepinephrine begin their jobs of keeping us awake. But as we do begin our sleep cycle from the neurotransmitter Adenosine, our body undergoes 5 stages of sleep.Stage 1,2,3,4, and REM ( Rapid Eye Movement)

We spend almost 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent in REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent in the other stages. Stage 1, the light sleep stage, is when our eyes and muscle activity slow down. This is also the stage when you wake up from that annoying twitch. During stage 2 sleep, eye movements stop and brain waves become slower. In stage 3, slow brain waves known as delta waves appear and when the body moves into stage 4 sleep, only delta waves are produced. Stages 3 and 4 are considered deep sleep, which is not optimal for naps. In these stages, it is very hard to wake someone up, resulting in a groggy wake up. REM sleep is the deepest of the sleep stages, it occurs 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep, and is the time where our dreams come alive. So just a reminder, if you want to take a nap, make sure it is 20 minutes so that your body does not enter stage 3 or 4.

 “Napping is still often stigmatized, for example by being associated with illness or a lack of ambition” . But in all honesty, it is the exact opposite. Napping give the body a chance to rest itself so that it can come back more ready than ever. Even the infamous Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison professed their love for naps. Napping will make America better. Simple as that. Ok maybe not simple as that, but it is at least a start. Telling people to start going to bed earlier is not realistic. But what is realistic is planning in a 20 min nap just like you would ideally plan your exercise or homework. In the end you will feel refreshed not in just your mood but also your overall productivity. So by asking America to take more naps and to appreciate them more with increase the positive moods which will in turn radiate to others. Not only that, because naps help with productivity, America has a chance of being even more effective with their time. This may include fitting more things in the day that you might want to achieve. It will also change your mood about something. So I want you to think about planning naps into your day, because with all these benefits, why wouldn’t you want too?

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