It’s 3 in the afternoon and you can barely keep your eyes open. Your mind feels foggy, and all you want to do is curl up under your desk for 20 minutes and take a nap. But cutting-edge, productive people don’t take naps, do they?
Actually, they do.
It turns out that a nap is exactly what you need in the afternoons when drowsiness takes over your body and mind.
From N.B.A. players1 to Google employees2, high-achieving people are turning to naps to recharge.
Sleep experts have discovered that naps can improve stamina and motor skills, and enhance creativity. In fact, Dr. Sara C. Mednick, author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life and Assistant Professor of Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside says,
“…without a midday rest, we are not able to perform at optimal levels throughout the day. In fact, our performance falls apart. Napping maintains and even boosts our skills.”3
When you are running on empty and slugging through your projects, wouldn’t it be great to have a fresh burst of creativity and energy? That is what a power nap can provide.
There are measurable physical benefits from napping as well. The risk of dying from a heart-related complication decreases in nap-takers (37% for those who nap at least 3 times per week!),4 and the release of growth hormone aids in weight loss.
How to power nap
15-30 minutes seems to be the sweet spot for the best power nap. Berkley biology students report that naps must be short in order to most effective. When naps exceed 45 minutes, the benefits begin to disappear. Just a 30 minute snooze can improve cognitive faculties by about 40%, according to NASA researchers.
Many people naturally wake up after 15-30 minutes of napping. But if you tend to be a longer nap-taker, set an alarm to awaken you so you do not over sleep. Keeping your nap at 30 minutes or less will also prevent you from being overly groggy upon waking.
Here are some tips to have a successful power nap:
- Try to be consistent. The best time for napping is between 1 and 3 in the afternoon, or approximately 8 hours after waking in the morning.
- Darken the room. Darkness causes your body to produce melatonin, which helps you fall asleep. If you can’t darken the room, put on a sleep mask or even drape a jacket over your face.
- Stay warm. Your body temperature drops while you sleep. Keep a blanket or jacket nearby to help stay warm.
- Control noise. If noise bothers you while you sleep, turn on a fan or white noise machine. Better yet, use and iPhone App like Mind Tuner. It’s great for napping, waking up, enhancing creativity and increasing focus!
Feeling drowsy yet?
To your success,
Coach Travis Barrett MS, CSCS
P.S. If you’ve found any of this helpful, please be sure to share, like, subscribe to this channel (and my YouTube channel listed below). DHP is exclusively built on word of mouth. We need your help in order to continue to grow and help more people!
P.P.S. - Whenever you're ready, here are 2 ways I can help
1) Subscribe to the DHP YouTube Channel for our most up to date free information about training, nutrition, and recovery
2) Private Coaching
Check out these testimonials below
Traci Counley said “I have been working with Travis for 6 years and he is an amazing coach! I have had several personal trainers over the last 15 years and by far Travis is the most dedicated, thorough, and up to date trainer I have ever had the pleasure to work with. He programs workouts for me on a really progressive and easy to use iPhone app and I do the workouts in my home gym. I love this flexibility and the ability to track my workouts easily. He really gets to know you as an individual and focuses on your goals and how best to achieve them. Travis has an extensive background in kinesiology, various training methods and power lifting and is constantly adapting to the needs of his clients to get them in the best shape of their lives. He consistently seeks out additional training and workshops to expand his fitness knowledge and then passes that onto his clients with new workouts. If you are committed and follow his scheduled workouts and put in a little extra time for mobility work, I guarantee you will be satisfied with your fitness goals. I am in the best shape of my life in my mid 40’s and the strongest I have ever been and the reason why is because Travis has me on a program that changes every 4 weeks and uses different exercises with different rep ranges, intensity and volume each block. He is amazing at coming up with new exercises that work muscle groups in different ways so that you are consistently making gains. He also uses the concept of periodization effectively to maximize strength but also works in appropriate deloading weeks. I cannot say enough great things about Travis not only as a strength and conditioning coach but as a human being. He is one of the kindest people I have ever met and is very easy to talk to and work with. Working with Travis has been the best decision I’ve ever made. Make the commitment now to the best trainer out there!
Emma Price said “Travis has been phenomenal to work with! As an avid runner and a stay at home mom, I was struggling to find a workout routine/program that wasn’t all “fluff” workouts and cardio, yet was also nervous to do anything at the gym beyond a treadmill due to a 15 yr old chronic back injury. Enter Travis! He has 100% met me where I’m at and created a path forward. I’m an absolute novice, and he’s helping me become comfortable in the gym, has handled all my questions and concerns, and most important to me, is helping me get stronger and more limber without hurting or aggravating my injury. Travis is extremely knowledgeable and attentive to detail, which I highly appreciate. As well as meeting in person, he uses a great coaching app we can communicate through and where he can share videos of the workouts I need to do and in return I can share my videos so he can check my form. I’m just a regular person, not a gym rat or body builder, so I was a bit hesitant to seek out a personal trainer, but it has been one of the best decisions I’ve made! Travis is just all around a great guy and amazing coach!!”
Fredrick Lee said “Travis is an absolute professional! I’ve been in special operations for over 12+ years and have had many injuries. I was about to get another back surgery when I started working with Travis. Within 6 months I was pain free, 6 months later I was reaching performance and strength I haven’t seen in years!”
