Tallest In The Morning

Many people, especially people blessed with youth, are taller after they wake up. The same phenomenon happens to astronauts when they're in outer space.

When you're asleep in your bed, the disks that separate the vertebrae in your spinal column expand just a bit. This separation can give your height a little boost, but it all goes away during the day. According to NASA, astronauts get to enjoy the extra height that "microgravity" bequeaths them until they come home to Earth.

Researchers in Australia are in the midst of a six-month experiment measuring a man and a woman every day to learn more about this very subject. They told me they're finding that people are indeed taller after lying down. This works any time of the day, they say. So theoretically, you could lie down on the couch for a nap, and wake up taller. Sitting and standing compact our vertebral column, especially the intervertebral disks. It's also possible that the muscles holding us up might get tired, because the more strenuous your daily activities, the more height you lose.

Again, this bolsters the argument for naps and laziness in general. It might not make you taller, but it will make you less short.