Normally, it’s not good to be “caught napping” because it suggests lack of alertness, laziness or weakness. New studies suggest, however, that taking a nap can be very beneficial to your health and can help improve alertness, creativity, mood and productivity, and helps reduce stress and lower your risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke and weight gain.

When is the Best Time to Take a Nap?

You don’t feel the need to nap in the afternoon because it’s too hot or because you had a heavy lunch. Your body is programmed to feel two periods of intense sleepiness: in the wee hours of the morning – about 2 to 4 AM – and in the afternoon – between 1 and 3 PM.

Knowing the best time for you to nap depends on when you go to sleep at night and how early you wake up. If you’re a “lark” and prefer to get up as early as 6 AM and hit the sack between 9 or 10 PM, you’re urge to nap will be at around 1 or 1:30 PM. On the other hand, if you’re an “owl” and get your zzzs after midnight and get up at around 8 or 9 AM, your nap need comes at around 2:30 or 3 PM.

What’s in a Nap and What You Get from Short and Long Naps

When you sleep, your brain’s electrical system undergoes five stages:

1. Falling asleep
2. Light sleep
3. Deep, slow-wave sleep
4. Deep, slow-wave sleep
5. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep or dreaming stage

If you take a catnap of 20 minutes, you get mostly light sleep, which boosts your alertness and concentration, improves your mood and sharpens your motor skills.

A nap of up to 45 minutes may include REM sleep, which boosts creative thinking and sensory processing. That’s why it’s best to limit your naps to 45 minutes or less if you need to immediately get going after dozing off to avoid drifting to slow-wave sleep. Waking up during the third and fourth stages causes disorientation, grogginess and serious sleep inertia that can last for 30 minutes or more.

If you want to take a long nap, nap for at least 90 minutes. Napping between 90 to 120 minutes usually covers all five stages of sleep. Long naps in the morning give you more REM sleep while long afternoon naps give more slow-wave sleep, which helps clear your thoughts, improve memory recall and compensate for lost sleep.

How to Enjoy the Perfect Nap

If you’ve already determined how long and what time you’ll take a nap, here are some tips that will help you make the most out of your siesta:

• Find a comfortable, quiet and safe place to lie down (it takes about 50 percent longer for you to fall asleep if you’re seated upright).
• Use a light blanket if it’s chilly (a heavy one will give you more warmth and may cause you to oversleep).
• Darken the room as much as possible. If you have eyeshades, use them.
• Take deep, slow breaths to calm your body. Relax your muscles one group at a time.
• Use earplugs or white noise to block out unwanted sounds.
• Relax your mind by counting sheep, reciting a mantra or focusing on a peaceful scene.
• Set an alarm or ask someone to wake you up.

As a hormone, oxytocin has powerful, health-promoting properties which start from the moment you are born. Oxytocin is released during childbirth, stimulating the contractions which guide the baby through the birth canal toward delivery. It also promotes the release of milk during breastfeeding and facilitates maternal behavior and bonding between new mothers and their infants, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains.

Only three percent of all mammals are able to form lasting monogamous relationships. This tiny list includes bats, beavers and a few other rodents, certain foxes, a few hoofed mammals, otters, and some primates, including humans.

The Three Stages of Love

Researcher Helen Fisher, author of Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love, defines three stages of love, each marked by hormones which influence your behavior and feelings:

1. Lust – In this stage, both men and women are driven by the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. This occurs from a few weeks to a few months.
2. Attraction – During this time, the initial lust progresses towards a desire for a specific partner. Romance and commitment develop as the neurotransmitters adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin are at work.  Attraction usually lasts a year to three years.
3. Attachment – Oxytocin and a similar hormone, vasopressin, are at work in this final and most important stage. Oxytocin is released by both men and women during sexual intercourse and steadily strengthens the feelings of attachment and closeness. The bonding which occurs is necessary for a long-term relationship.

Love can start in any one of these stages, Fisher explains. Some people have sex with a new partner and fall in love after. Some fall in love first before becoming more intimate. Others develop a deep feeling of attachment first, then experience romance and mutual sexual attraction.

Studies suggest that the location of receptors for oxytocin and vasopressin, makes all the difference when it comes to long-term social bonding and monogamy, Dr. Mercola points out. The more receptors you have in your brain associated with reward and reinforcement, the more likely you are to fall in love and remain monogamous.

How to Experience the Health Benefits of Oxytocin

Oxytocin’s health benefits stem from its ability to counteract stress. The more oxytocin your pituitary gland releases, the better your ability to handle stressful situations, as it decreases the levels of cortisol and other stress hormones and lowers your blood pressure during moments of anxiety.

This hormone has also been found to reduce the cravings for alcohol, drugs and sweets.

Dr. Mercola believes that oxytocin likely contributes to why people with pets recover faster from illness, why couples live longer than singles, and why support groups work for people with addictions and chronic diseases.

But he is strongly against the use of artificial forms of oxytocin because synthetic hormones can seriously harm you. An exception to this would be in the case of a difficult delivery and labor is not progressing smoothly.

Cultivating warm, loving, intimate relationships, no matter what stage of life you’re in, is the best way for you to facilitate the natural release of oxytocin in your body.

Touch, positive interactions and psychological support are known to increase oxytocin. Here are some tips on how you can experience the benefits of the love hormone:

• Take care of a pet
• Hold hands, hug and kiss more
• Give and receive a backrub
• Nurture others
• Get a massage
• Practice mind-body therapies like breathing exercises and yoga

Having healthy relationships contribute to a healthier you. This is something for you to ponder on this Valentine’s Day.

Your body has the amazing ability to heal itself, so even if you haven’t been eating right, still on the stick and the bottle, or have less than healthy habits, you can still wipe your slate clean, make the decision to start living healthy and never look back.

This year could be your healthiest ever if you want it to be. Here are Dr. Joseph Mercola’s recommended lifestyle changes that will help you take control of your health this 2010:

1. Learn How to Deal with Stress
   Dr. Mercola notes that the vast majority of patients he has treated who were suffering from serious chronic illnesses have previous emotional stress that contributed to their problems. But it doesn’t take serious trauma to cause these changes, because the sum of the normal, emotional situations that you experience on a daily basis can negatively affect your future health. Mercola recommends meditation, prayer, physical activity and tools like the Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT) to help you maintain emotional and mental balance.
2. Get More Sun
   Studies show that vitamin D, which you can get for free by simply getting enough sun exposure, can help decrease your risk of cancer and many other diseases .Vitamin D receptors can be found in almost all of your cells, from your brain to your bones, so its ability to influence your health is simply amazing, Mercola points out.
3. Eat According to Your Nutritional Type
   Dr. Mercola’s nutrition plan is based on natural whole foods and is designed to help increase your longevity. This involves eliminating, or at the very least, drastically cutting your consumption of grains and sugars and at the same time, eating foods that are right for your unique biochemistry.
4. Exercise
   Don’t kid yourself – you can’t be at your peak condition if you don’t work it and sweat it out. That’s because exercise helps boost your immune system, aids in weight loss and weight management, and helps you sleep better, among other benefits.
5. Keep Your Toxin Load Low
   The world is more toxic nowadays and the number of dangerous chemicals lurking around you continues to increase. That is why you need to become an informed and vigilant consumer, Dr. Mercola advises. This means using non-toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, insecticides and other products.
6. Drink More Pure Water
   You can survive without food for weeks but you’d die without water within a few days. Your body needs to be constantly rehydrated as it loses water when you sweat and urinate. Checking the color of your urine will tell you what your water requirement should be. If you notice that your urine has turned deep, dark yellow, it’s likely that you’re not drinking enough water. Installing a quality water filter in your home will provide you pure drinking water and help you remove impurities and toxic disinfection byproducts from your tap water.
7. Get Quality Sleep
   Studies show that disrupted sleep cycles can lead to serious health problems like cancer, coronary heart disease and depression. If you feel rundown or tired all the time, lack of sleep is a big factor because circadian rhythms regulate the energy levels in your cells. Also, the proteins involved with your body clock and metabolism are intrinsically linked and are dependent upon each other.

Beer drinkers are aware that drinking beer as if it’s water will lead to a beer belly, among other health concerns. Studies show, however, that moderate consumption can actually provide some health benefits.

Recently, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg have discovered that a powerful antioxidant called xanthohumol, which is found in hops – an aromatic herb which gives beer its bitter flavor – can help fight breast and prostate cancers.

Scientists are already aware that substances in hops help inhibit the action of estrogen but the German study marks the first time that they have been found to block testosterone as well.

Xanthohumol was also found to help prevent the release of PSA, a protein which hastens the spread of prostate cancer.

But hold your horses, beer drinkers, because doctors aren’t about to recommend regular booze consumption as a cancer prevention tip.

The more popular light lager and pilsner beers, which are preferred by more beer drinkers in the U.S., contain less hops than ales and traditional beers like porter and stout. That means you’ll have to drink more than a dozen beers to get enough xanthohumol to experience any potential health benefits, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains.

While moderate consumption of alcohol can provide you with certain health benefits, alcohol use also poses significant health and safety risks, as it impairs driving performance, Dr. Mercola points out. It is also a known fact that alcohol is a neurotoxin, meaning it can poison your brain.

Mercola believes that alcohol is only for people who are at no risk of alcohol addiction and are already at their peak health, which means they have their carbohydrates – sugars and grains – under control, as alcoholic beverages increases insulin levels.

You get constantly stimulated emotionally, mentally, physically and visually on a daily basis physically. Taking a break from this stimulation can help improve your health, natural health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola explains. Meditation allows you to rest your mind and direct its focus on one particular thing, free from any form of distraction, or on nothing at all.

Meditating allows you to become more aware and mindful of the things going on around you. Through meditation, you can strengthen the areas of your brain that regulate attention and memory, detach from thoughts that lead to emotional swings, manage your mood cycles and stress levels, and learn how to do things more effectively.

Aside from the emotional and mental benefits, numerous studies have looked at the physical health benefits of meditation. Every illness is related to stress on some level, Mercola points out, and since meditation is effective at relieving stress, it can also help relieve:

• Chronic pain
• Fatigue
• Gastrointestinal distress and irritable bowel syndrome
• Headaches
• High blood pressure
• Mild depression
• Premenstrual syndrome
• Respiratory problems such as emphysema and asthma
• Sleep disturbances
• Skin disorders and
• Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis

Meditation can even help boost your immunity. In a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers found that people who had eight weeks of meditation training produced more antibodies to a flu vaccine. Dr. Mercola doesn’t recommend the flu shot but this shows that meditation can boost the immune system.

Think of good health as a three-legged stool, says Dr. Mercola. The first leg is proper diet, the second is exercise and the third being stress management tools like meditation.

The stool can’t stand up without all three legs. That’s how important meditation and stress management can be to your overall health and wellness. Your survival depends on your ability to handle what life throws at you, the food that you eat and the condition of your body.