Top 10 Tips to Take a Power Nap
For those of you with children, their naptime is a quiet time well anticipated. Although we’re tempted, we don’t want for them to sleep too much in the day. Needless to say, they’ll be too wound up at night and that won’t be beneficial for you. It’s a fact that our current culture in America frowns upon sleep in the middle of the day. However, it’s proven that most of us that get about 8 hours of sleep a night or less experience an increase naturally in afternoon drowsiness, usually 8 hours after getting out of bed. In the latest research, you can actually become more alert, diminish stress and boost brain functioning with a power nap. Imagine living life daily with less stress, more patience, increased learning, more efficiency, better reaction time and improved health. An afternoon nap can result in all of these improvements in lifestyle. This doesn’t suggest that we should spend our days sleeping and our nights watching infomercials and TV land on television. That would be…I don’t know—counterproductive.
Although the human body requires 7-8 sleep hours a day, as less than 6 basically triples the risk of an automobile accident. Ironically, over 9 hours of sleep can also be perilous for the body. In regards to the power nap, 20 minutes of afternoon sleep offers more benefit than 20 minutes of more morning sleep. Here are the top 10 tips to take a power nap:
- Take a nap for 20 minutes to increase productivity and alertness in the day.
- Nap either in the late morning or early part of the afternoon.
- Before a nap, evade sugar and caffeine.
- Ascertain you don’t consume food, which is difficult to digest. This can keep you from a comfortable sleep.
- Noises shouldn’t disturb you, so seek a quiet area.
- Turn off lights, draw curtains or shades and/or wear a sleep mask for naptime. This helps to stimulate melatonin (hormone that’s sleep-inducing) and capitalize on rest.
- Cover up with a blanket, as the temperature of our bodies decrease during sleep.
- Set the time on the alarm at desired time of more than 60 minutes for a power nap to repair muscles and bones.
- After a power nap, you’d want to wake up in a peaceful mode. Try to set an alarm clock with serene, melodic tones, rather than jolting sounds and aggressive music.
- It’s imperative to enjoy a guilt-free nap. A power nap only increases your job performance.
It’s advisable to take a power nap to perform better at work (and play) and feel more vibrant. Thus, it’s important to map out of one hour of lunch, or even suggest a naptime in the office. This is why more sophisticated businesses create “quiet rooms”.
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