College was great for many reasons, some of which have no place being mentioned on this blog. Of those that do, however, I immediately think back to the afternoon nap I occasionally took. Living on campus, it was easy to squeeze in a quick, forty-five minute power nap before my next class and recharge my batteries a bit. But, with that easy, college life schedule years behind me, the best I can do these days is enjoy the mere thought of a mid-day nap. Amazingly, though, a thought, or that anticipation, of sleep has been shown to lower blood pressure.

Studying more than 23,000 people, Greek researchers studied the health benefits of taking a daily nap. Not surprisingly, they found that people who caught some Z's in the middle of the day reduced their risk of heart attack by 37 percent. What was surprising, however, was the discovery that anticipating a nap produced the most beneficial cardiovascular effects.

Measuring the heart rates of study volunteers during two separate stages: 1) the stage between turning the lights off and the onset of sleep, and 2) during actual sleep, researchers found that heart rates were lowest in the first stage. This suggests that the anticipation of sleep may create a calming affect equal to, or even more powerful than, actually sleeping.

Yawn. Sorry ... I was busy thinking about taking a nap.