"A nap in the afternoon gives you two days in one."
While talking to Dan Rather of CBS News in 1993, Bill Clinton said, “If I can take a nap—even fifteen or twenty minutes—in the middle of the day, it is really invigorating to me. On the days when I’m a little short of sleep, I try to work it out so that I can sneak off and just lie down for fifteen minutes, a half hour, and it really makes all the difference in the world.”
Because of our internal circadian rhythm, our alertness and, hence, our performance dips in the afternoon. This nadir is deeper when we are sleep deprived and when we are traveling across multiple time zones. If we can fight this drowsiness with a strategically placed power nap, then we can maximize our efficiency and avoid fatal mistakes. (Most fatal vehicular accidents occur in the midafternoon and after midnight.)
Studies prove that a fifteen-minute power nap provides benefits lasting up to 150 minutes, including:
- Improved alertness, both subjectively and objectively
- Reduced fatigue and improved vigor
- Enhanced creativity and problem solving
- Improved perception
- Facilitated learning
- Improved declarative and procedural memory
- Positive mood and emotions, clearer communication, humor and optimism, and situational awareness
If a fifteen-minute nap gives you 150 minutes of improved executive function, how can you resist such an investment? Click here to learn the technique of PREM power nap.
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