Napping Your Way To The Top

take-a-napI’m like a little kid, when it comes to sleeping. I hate sleeping. There’s 101 other things that I’d rather be doing than sleeping. I try to remember there negative effects of sleeping deprivation, so I can make peace with sleeping every night:

  • Insulin rises to pre-diabetes levels
  • There’s an increase in heart disease
  • We don’t learn
  • It’s difficult to sustain productivity

Since I only average five to six hours of sleep per night, I’m considering power napping. According to Business Week’s Executive Life column, “Napping Your Way To The Top, The performance boost of a midday snooze has companies signing on,” napping enhances productivity.

Sleep scientist Sara Mednick’s book Take a Nap! Change Your Life explains how power napping helps health and work productivity. There’s “extreme napping” for people in high stress situations that can’t fit in core nighttime sleep. Mednick adds,

“Extreme napping is a way to regulate short amounts of sleeping and waking. So you could, over 24 hours, take a 1 1/2-hour nap every 8 hours. It can be successful, but if you don’t do it right, you could get sick. I recommend it for short-term use only–say, if you’re under a deadline or you’re attending a conference. Ultrashort sleep is a way to make sure your body gets enough.”

The Recurring 1:00 pm Appointment
So, why not try power napping around 1:00 pm each day. It sounds like we should nap only 20 minutes, which is easy to get out of. If we sleep longer, like 60 minutes, we become groggy, making it harder to get out of deep sleep. Want to be more productive today? Find a quiet spot, and power nap for 20 minutes today.

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