Want more time? Take a nap!

It’s time to celebrate National Sleep Awareness Week and National Nap Day.

March 6th week was National Sleep Awareness Week and March 14, 2016 is National Nap Day.

I don’t need a special day to tell me to take a nap. I take a nap almost daily. And I am continuing telling clients to take a 30 minute nap to get more done. It’s true.

brett sleeping
Naps are not just for kids!

When you focus on energy management instead of time management you get more done. Time is finite and energy is infinite. If you feel like you are running on empty, are out of time and are always tired, take a nap! A short time of 20 to 30 minutes can instantly improve your mood, well-being, stamina and performance.

3 Types of Naps
  • Planned napping (also called preparatory napping) involves taking a nap before you actually get sleepy. You may use this technique when you know that you will be up later than your normal bed time or as a mechanism to ward off getting tired earlier.
  • Emergency napping occurs when you are suddenly very tired and cannot continue with the activity you were originally engaged in. This type of nap can be used to combat drowsy driving or fatigue while using heavy and/or dangerous machinery.
  • Habitual napping is practiced when a person takes a nap at the same time each day. Young kids may fall asleep at about the same time each afternoon or an adult might take a short nap after lunch each day. After Gary works out for a few hours and eats breakfast he usually naps every day around 11 am.

nap

Benefits of Naps
Memorizing

Since 2000 or so, researchers at Harvard and elsewhere have conducted dozens of experiments that have shown that sleep improves learning, memory, and creative thinking. Several studies have shown that if people are asked to memorize something — like, a list of words — and then take a nap, they’ll remember more of it than they would have if they hadn’t taken the nap. Even catnaps of six minutes (not counting the five minutes it takes to fall asleep on average) have been shown to make a difference in how well people retain information.

Problem Solving

Robert Stickgold, a Harvard sleep researcher, has discovered that taking a nap helps people become better problem solvers. It seems to help people separate important information from extraneous details.

Alertness

Naps can restore alertness, enhance performance, and reduce mistakes and accidents. A study at NASA on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%.

Relaxation

Napping has psychological benefits. It can provide an easy way to get some relaxation and rejuvenation.

Want to join some famous nappers?

Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and George W. Bush are known to have valued an afternoon nap.

How long to nap

30 minutes does wonders for me. Research is right. It does take me 5 minutes to fall asleep. My 30 minute nap gives me several more hours of productivity. I feel refreshed and ready to get more done.

However, power naps of fewer than 30 minutes—even those as brief as 6 and 10 minutes— can restore wakefulness and promote performance and learning

Naps lasting more than 30 minutes appear to be associated with a period of impaired alertness (sleep inertia) immediately after awakening that takes some time to dissipate before performance improves.

The National Institute of Mental Health says the bottom line is “We should stop feeling guilty about taking that “power nap” at work.

Want more time? Take your 30 minute nap!

How do naps help your “happy life?” We can’t wait to hear!