I Love Naps. What’s the Right Duration to Improve Alertness and Performance?
EINSTEIN DID IT. So did Leonardo da Vinci and Winston Churchill. They all took naps. Should you? A brief afternoon nap may boost your memory, improve your mood, ease stress, and make you more alert.
Last Sunday, we Americans switched to Daylight Saving Time. DST is the practice of setting our clocks forward one hour from standard time during the summer months and back again in the fall to make better use of natural daylight.
You know the drill: Spring forward, fall back. We shift our clocks forward one hour in the spring when daylight savings time begins (we lose one hour of sleep) and back one hour when daylight savings time ends in the autumn (we regain one hour of sleep).
It is in the context of this recent one-hour loss of sleep that I want to talk a bit about afternoon snoozing. I often look forward to having one for energy restoration. But am I right to assume that napping is a good way to feel more rested and alert? And what about cognition? Is it true that taking a nap may enhance it?
Are you also thinking about a midday nap? You may want to be strategic with its duration. For example, I often practice piano on weekend afternoons. To optimize my practice, I need to be alert. Short power naps of about ten to twenty minutes seem to…
