Chinese urged to take afternoon nap

Afternoon naps are a long-established practice

By Francis Markus BBC correspondent in Shanghai

A Chinese newspaper has warned its readership that intensive mental work straight after lunch can cause dizziness, insomnia and even increase the danger of a stroke.

The warning in the Health Times reflects the fact that the traditional after-lunch nap, or Xiuxi, is coming under increasing pressure.

In previous decades the topic might never have arisen, but as China's market reforms take effect, the after-lunch nap is an institution under threat.

The Chinese economy is opening up

Now China's doctors are coming to its rescue.

The latest edition of Health Times describes the case of a 30-year-old man working for a private enterprise.

He sought help complaining of dizziness, insomnia, weakness and memory loss.

Doctors diagnosed that he was suffering from the effects of long-term intensive mental work - especially just after meals.

The Health Times also warned that a thickening of the blood which occurs after eating can combine with certain other factors to increase the risk of strokes.

Whether such warnings will cause China's increasingly competitive workforce to rush to their bosses and claim an old fashioned Xiuxi is not clear.

There is certainly no shortage of all kinds of medical advice available to Chinese newspaper readers if they want it.

Among other recent health tips in various dailies are an item warning women against wearing tight cotton knickers and a two-page article giving advice about how to live to 100.