Shabbat shalom!

The JNR will be taking the weekend off in order to celebrate the July 4th holiday with family in DC and Virginia. I wish you all the very best, and a big happy birthday to our beloved country! 

I will leave you all with this small bit of encouraging news from The Idler about napping: apparently it makes you more clever! And this science explains, perhaps, why my wife is so damn clever!

IT’S OFFICIAL: NAPS MAKE YOU CLEVERER

Tom Hodgkinson | 23 Jun 2023 | Letter from the Editor

Note to captains of industry: if you want your staff to be more productive, let them have afternoon siestas – it really works, writes Tom Hodgkinson

It’s always nice when the science catches up with us idlers. A new report says that the more you nap, the cleverer you are. The findings were published in a journal with the appealing title of Sleep Health (I must get a subscription).

“We found an association between habitual daytime napping and larger total brain volume, which could suggest that napping regularly provides some protection against neurodegeneration through compensating for poor sleep,” the researchers noted.

The report adds to a growing pile of evidence which suggests that, in the words of neuroscientist Prof Tara Spires-Jones, “sleep is important for brain health”.

Sleep expert Matthew Walker carried out a nap experiment a few years ago. He gave a test to two groups of people. One group had powered on through the afternoon with no nap. The other group enjoyed a long post-prandial doze. The nappers did far better.

“Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took at nap,” commented Walker.

So that’s all clear. But the question remains. How to nap? Where should you take your siesta? And how long should it be?

Speaking personally, I find that I can drop off almost anywhere.

Amen to that!

I will be back next week with another exciting edition, but until then, stay safe out there!

Brad out.