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The Rules Of Power Napping And Why You Should Consider One

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Naps take me back to days as a youngster. Reflecting on how we had scheduled z time and how much I put up a fight to stay awake. Felt like I was missing part of life, but the truth is if you don’t sleep you’re missing a part of life.

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Why Is Sleep Important

Fast forward to present day and I salivate at the thought of a siesta. Time may be of the essence, yet try looking at getting sleep as charging your battery. If you let your phone’s energy drain it won’t operate, right? You’re no different.

A good portion of sleeping’s responsibility is to enhance cognitive function. This applies to the ability to concentrate, alertness, mental agility, imagination, memory formation, and even the access of memories. Missing simply a slice of brain acuity will lower your quality of life. Eyes could be peeled, missing what’s right in front of you.

Humans fall in line with the small percentage of mammals that aren’t polyphasic, meaning to sleep for short periods throughout the day as opposed to one block of sleep. And still we fall short oftentimes, let’s do better. You want to hit all stages of the sleep cycle multiple times nightly to get the most from your body.

Note: nightly rest impacts muscle building & maintenance by increasing growth hormone release, supporting healthy testosterone levels, and even central nervous system recovery.

Another note: although metabolism slows while sleeping it supports a healthy metabolic rate when awake. Lacking sleep increases stress and the release of cortisol, which leads to reduced metabolism even when astir, possible insulin resistance, as well as increased appetite.

What Are The Stages Of Sleep

First we’ll go through the sleep cycle then get into napping:

  1. Non-rem: stage one sounds off the transition from up and doing your thing to slumber. This will last minutes, but the conversion includes slowing of bodily functions like heart rate, breathing patterns, eye movements, and muscular operation. Being that it’s still a very light state, this is where your partner might rollover and bring you right back to reality.

  2. Non-rem: stage two is light sleep as well, but a little deeper than stage uno. Each stage you fall more deeply into slumber. Eye movement seizes, body temperature drops, and all of the changeovers from stage one deepen. Your brain starts to tread and you’re two feet into the stage you spend most of your repeated sleep cycles in.

  3. Non-rem: hitting stage three is what gets you rejuvenated after a nightly sabbatical. The slowing of all function continues to a dipping point before cascading into rem sleep.

  4. Rem: this is the deep, deep sector of nighty retirement. Rapid eye movement and memory formation occurs here. Rem happens about 90 minutes in and gets longer with each cycle you complete. The most brain activity occurs at this stage and you’re certain to enter dreamland making it responsible for the majority of your fantastical sleep adventures. Breathing speeds, heart rate increases, and blood pressure reaches near normal levels. In response your limbs become temporarily paralyzed, this is your body’s way of preventing you from pantomiming dreams.

A sleep cycle typically lasts 90-120 minutes; you should hit 4-5 of those most nights. When napping you want to only reach the early stages of a sleep cycle or go through the whole shebang.. No in-between.

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What Is A Power Nap

A power nap is a concise pick me up. It’s a siesta designed to propel you through the remainder of your day. A short quality mid-day sleep session.

I recommend a nap for those that workout in the evening, especially if you find yourself skipping more often than not. Energy and motivation seems to wither by evening’s time.. A nap could galvanize you to do the do. On your lunch break scarf something down and grab a few Zs. Have a late presentation? Already know you’ll be up all night? Studying later? Get a nap in.

How To Take A Power Nap

If you want true power from your power nap follow these guidelines:

  • Set the time: when is a nap of most benefit to you? Is this an emergency nap? Dog-tired so you need to lay it down. A routine nap? One you’ll do habitually. Or is it a strategic nap? One you plan to take for lack of sleep or an upcoming event, maybe a late workout. Pick a spot that’ll work for your goal, yet not interfere with bedtime. You don’t want to nap too late, unless there’ll be some energy depleting activity between snooze-offs.

  • Set the scene: go into a comfortable room or area. Nice temperature, preferably dark or use an eye shade to simulate darkness, ditch the electronics, slide in some earplugs, and write all of your to-dos down before you doze off. It’s no good to nap prep and then spend the whole time thinking about what you need to get done.

  • Set the alarm: how long will you nap? The goal is a compact snooze to wake up refreshed and energized. The goal is to avoid sleep inertia, this is why you may arise groggy and more tired than before. Sleep inertia is when your body has already gathered momentum and wants to continue the sleep cycle, but you interrupt. A power nap is all non-rem sleep so experiment to find what works best for you. It’ll be between 15-30 minutes. My ideal is 25ish minutes including the time it takes me to fall asleep.

Note: if you’re napping to truly make up for lost sleep. Shoot for a whole cycle by sleeping for 90-120 minutes. This will give you the energy boost along with a degree of traditional nightly sleeping benefits like boosted growth hormone release.

Benefits Of A Nap

Here’s what a nap can do for you:

  • Improve mood

  • Provide a short mental detox

  • Reduce hunger, sleep deprivation inspires your body to seek energy

  • Refresh the mind

  • Beat the mid-day drag

  • keep testosterone up by shunning excess cortisol release

  • Enhance focus

  • Limit mistakes

  • Lower stress and lessen cortisol distribution

  • Strengthen memory

  • Boost immune system

Note: naps begin to release testosterone and growth hormone around the 45 minute mark, so 90-120 minute naps are where you’ll dip into those benefits.

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So, It’s About That Time

Diet and exercise give you results, but sleep gives you the foundation to make it all happen. Don’t be afraid to power nap and tackle the rest of your day with umph. A good short concise sleep session of 15-30 minutes is all you need for energy, focus, and motivation. A power nap is a powerful tool that’ll empower you to Be Great.