power nap
Seems like I have a sleep thing going….
I found this great article about the power nap that I think we should all integrate into our lives….
Enjoy.
Snooze, You Win
According to new studies, nothing tunes up mind and body like a good nap. But there’s an art to catching the right kind of z’s.
When billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett broke the record for
around-the-world solo jet flight last March, he slept just 60 minutes
in 67 hours of flight time — 60 minutes broken into two- and
three-minute naps. “I slept when I needed it and awoke refreshed,” he
says. Fossett, who holds world records in ballooning, sailing, and
flying, adds that none of his feats could have been done without these
micro-variety “power naps.”
So what makes a power nap effective? Think of it as an investment with
the greatest return in the least amount of time, a kind of
super-efficient sleep that fits nicely in a high-pressure schedule:
say, between business meetings or in the minutes before a game.
Napping in general benefits heart functioning, hormonal maintenance,
and cell repair, says Dr. Sara Mednick, a scientist at the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies who is at the forefront of napping
research. A power nap, says Mednick, simply maximizes these benefits by
getting the sleeper into and out of rejuvenative sleep as fast as
possible. No surprise that Lance Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael,
says that “naps were critical in his overall training plan.” In
Manhattan, napping has become a lucrative business: MetroNaps in the
Empire State Building provides darkened cot-like redoubts that attract
Broadway actors between shows as well as investment bankers who
otherwise would fall asleep at their desks. And in Iraq, U.S. Marine
commanders have mandated a power nap before patrols.
Here’s how the power nap works: Sleep comes in five stages that recur
cyclically throughout a typical night, and a power nap seeks to include
just the first two of them. The initial stage features 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 — lowering temperature, relaxing 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.
The five stages repeat every 90 to 120 minutes. Stage one can last up
to 10 minutes, stage two until the 20th minute. Extenuating
circumstances, like manning the controls of a jet, aside, experts
believe that the optimal power nap should roughly coincide with the
first 20 minutes in order to give you full access to stage two’s
restorative benefits. In addition to generally improving alertness and
stamina, stage two is marked by a certain electrical signals in the
nervous system that seem to solidify the connection between neurons
involved in muscle memory. “It’s like a welding machine,” says Mednick.
“When you wake up, your neurons perform the same function as before,
but now faster and with more accuracy,” making the 20-minute nap
indispensible to the hard-working athlete looking to straighten out his
putter or baseline shot.
Mednick’s most recent research also shows that power naps can lift
productivity and mood, lower stress, and improve memory and learning.
In fact, Mednick has found through MRIs of nappers that brain activity
stays high throughout the day with a nap; without one, it declines as
the day wears on. Tell that to the boss next time he finds you passed
out at your desk.
There is, however, a pitfall in all this sleeping around. You have to
carefully time the duration of your nap in order to avoid waking in
slow-wave sleep. This can produce what’s known as sleep inertia. That’s
when the limbs feel like concrete, the eyes can’t focus, the speech is
slurred, the mind is sluggish. Sleep inertia can ruin your day. You
must keep the nap to 20 minutes or slightly less, and if you need the
extra sleep, wait until the 50-minute mark. This will safely keep you
on the power side of your nap.
Getting The Perfect Nap
Everyone, no matter how high-strung, has the capacity to nap. But the
conditions need to be right. Dr. Sara Mednick, who will publish a book
on napping in the spring (tentatively titled Take Back the Nap!,
Workman Publishing) has some helpful hints:
1 The first consideration is psychological: Recognize that you’re not
being lazy; napping will make you more productive and more alert after
you wake up.
2 Try to nap in the morning or just after lunch; human circadian
rhythms make late afternoons a more likely time to fall into deep
(slow-wave) sleep, which will leave you groggy.
3 Avoid consuming large quantities of caffeine as well as foods that
are heavy in fat and sugar, which meddle with a person’s ability to
fall asleep.
4 Instead, in the hour or two before your nap time, eat foods high in calcium and protein, which promote sleep.
5 Find a clean, quiet place where passersby and phones won’t disturb you.
6 Try to darken your nap zone, or wear an eyeshade. Darkness stimulates melatonin, the sleep- inducing hormone.
7 Remember that body temperature drops when you fall asleep. Raise the room temperature or use a blanket.
8 Once you are relaxed and in position to fall asleep, set your alarm for the desired duration (see below).
How Long Is A Good Nap?
THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 secondsSleep studies haven’t yet concluded
whether there are benefits to these brief intervals, like when you nod
off on someone’s shoulder on the train.
THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness.
THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance.
THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutesIncludes the benefits of the micro
and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and clears the
brain of useless built-up information, which helps with long-term
memory (remembering facts, events, and names).
THE LAZY MAN’S NAP: 50 to 90 minutesIncludes slow-wave plus REM sleep;
good for improving perceptual processing; also when the system is
flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones and
muscles.
By: Christopher Ketcham
Illustration by: Eddie Guy
(January 2006)
http://www.mensjournal.com/healthFitness/0601/napping_power.html
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