The survey found that 61 per cent of the students at Meizen High School who took a nap said they could concentrate on their classwork throughout the day versus 46 per cent of those who didn’t take a nap.

Meizen High School, one of the best and most rigorous schools in the region, is also one of the few high schools in Japan with an official siesta. It introduced the nap period in June because its students generally don’t get enough sleep. Most stay up late studying for university entrance exams, engaging in extracurricular activities or exchanging e-mail messages with friends.

It began its siesta after a recent study found that a catnap increases work efficiency.

Students take a 15-minute nap after lunch. During the siesta, soothing music by Mozart is played through the school’s public-address system while the students rest their heads on their desks. Taking a nap is voluntary.

Before the siesta programme began more than 60 per cent of the school’s students said they didn’t get enough sleep and more than 80 per cent said that they became extremely drowsy in class.

Forty days after the siesta was introduced, 61 per cent of the nappers said they could focus clearly on their classwork while only the 46 per cent of the non-nappers said they could concentrate throughout the day.

A higher ratio of students who took a nap said their academic grades had improved, they were more willing to study and they were in good physical shape, according to Assistant Professor Naohisa Uchimura from the Kurume University medical school. He surveyed seven schools for the study.

“The results are better than we expected,” said Shinei Otaka, principal of Meizen High School. “We’d like to encourage more students to take a nap ahead of the university entrance exam season.”

Whether that will happen remains to be seen.

While 208 Meizen students took a post-lunch snooze at least once a week, 595 opted out of the midday siesta period.

Yomiuri Shimbun

Asia News Network

TOKYO

-----------------------------------

Scholarships: Jefferson Fellowships

Mid-career print and broadcast journalists are invited to apply for the Winter 2006 Jefferson Fellowships. The 15-day study tour allows journalists to develop a greater understanding of the Asia-Pacific region.

The applicants must have a minimum of 10 years’ experience covering business, economics or international relations.

The February 5-26, 2006 programme will begin at the East-West Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii, and tour New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai in India and Islamabad in Pakistan. Ten fellowships are offered to journalists from Asia, the Pacific Islands and the United States to help them appreciate South Asia’s rising economic, political and cultural importance.

The East-West Centre will pay for air transportation, accommodation and living costs. The centre will also sponsor J-1 US visas, but the fellows are required to pay visa fees for the USA, India and Pakistan.

Application forms can be downloaded from www.eastwestcenter.org/sem-mp.asp and should be submitted by October 21 to the Jefferson Fellowships, East-West Seminars, East-West Centre, 1601 East West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96848-1601 USA. For more information, contact Institute of International Education/Thailand at (02) 652 0653 ext 119 or e-mail pakprim@bkk.iie.org.

----------------------------------

2minute facts: Wordplay

Here are some definitions that give new meaning to words:

ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

BEAUTY PARLOUR: A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL: Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS: The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

GOSSIP: A person who will never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.

HANDKERCHIEF: Cold storage.

INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MYTH: A female moth.

MOSQUITO: An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN: A grape with sunburn.

SECRET: Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON: A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE: The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW: One of the greatest labour-saving devices of today.

YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES: Something other people have. You have character lines.

Source: www.berro.com/entertainment/language_interesting_facts.htm