Power Nap

Get Empowered by Power Nap 
You experienced sleep deficit last night.  On the way to the office, you weren’t able to resist sleeping as soon as you were seated on the train.  After 20 minutes, you were awakened by the announcement that the train has arrived at your station.  Surprisingly, the reinvigoration that you got from that 20-minute nap in the train parallels the reinvigoration you get from a full sleep at home. What could have happened? Were you just too tired that any additional amount of sleep would make a whole lot of difference? You probably were.  You might have partied too hard last night.  But that is not everything.  Do you know that the very same nap you had in the train could have gone wrong and could have made you dizzy, sluggish and even more sleepy instead of reinvigorated?  This is what we call sleep inertia.  It is the result of entering a normal sleep cycle but failing to complete it.   So what really happened in that 20-minute nap in the train? It is what James Maas, a social psychologist at Cornell University, called power nap.  Today, we use power nap and catnap interchangeably.  They are basically the same- short sleep that ends before the occurrence of deep sleep. 

Power nap and sleep
Sleep comes in five cyclical stages.  The initial stage is the sinking into sleep as electrical brain activity, eye and jaw-muscle movement, and respiration slow.  The second is a light but restful sleep in which the body gets ready by lowering its temperature and relaxing the muscles further for the entry into the deep and dreamless "slow-wave sleep," or SWS, that occurs in stages three and four.  Stage five, of course, is REM, when the eyes twitch and dreaming becomes intense.  These five stages repeat every 90 to 120 minutes.   A power nap ends at the second stage of the whole process.  You complete the first stage that takes about ten minutes and the second stage taking another ten to twenty minutes, which makes 20 minutes the ideal length of a power nap.   

Other powerful naps
As the original power nap lasts more or less for 20 minutes, shorter or longer naps reap beneficial effects as well. Say for example, a micro-nap taking two to five minutes could effectively ease sleepiness while the longer mini-nap taking five to 20 minutes increases alertness, stamina, motor learning and motor performance. The power nap alone covers these combined effects of micro and mini naps, and even more.  Long-term memory is improved as the brain is cleared of useless built-up information.  In effect, retrieving facts, events, names and even numbers become ironically, a no-brainer for you! Well, if you can afford for yourself an hour or so for a nap, then you might as well take what is called the lazy man’s nap that could last for about 50 to 90 minutes.  Benefits include improving perceptual processing and repairing worn out bones and muscles. 

The priceless investment
With these notes on power nap, I bet you can do no wrong anymore.  You can now strut you stuff at parties or watch movies to your heart’s desire all night.  Remember the recommended number of minutes and set your alarm to avoid oversleeping.  You surely don’t want to experience sleep inertia which could only drain your power some more.   

Make power napping a habit- be it on the train every morning or during breaks at work- to optimize your body’s potential.  Consider it an investment with the highest rate of return at the shortest possible time with a very low capitalization required. 

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Inside you'll learn...

    * "The Sleep Cycle Secret" - The one magic technique that will drastically cut down the amount of time you need to sleep and give you twice as much rest.
    * The difference between the different stages of sleep - and why it's important to you.
    * How to use sunlight to help you sleep better.
    * How to wake up on time effortlessly, without your alarm clock.
    * What you can do to eliminate morning grogginess forever.
    * And much, much more...

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