Power Naps Do Work – Science Said So!

For some people the ‘Power Nap’ is a saving grace, it is the thing that gets them through their hectic schedules and enables them to function in a way that vaguely resembles the behavior of a normal human being. Others however will argue that they don’t work at all, that they leave you feeling even more tired and groggy than before and when you wake from them, you wander around the place like a discombobulated zombie.

Thinking back to ghosts of power naps past, I can see both sides to this story as I have experienced both of these types of result.

Now though it science has got involved in the debate and has come out battling for the pros of the power nap. Apparently the trick to successful snippet sleep is the length of time that you snooze for because the state in which you wake, all depends upon which cycle of sleep you are in at the time.

We’ve known about the 4 different stages of sleep for some time, the first 2 stages being relatively light sleep and stages 3 and 4 being deeper slumber that eventually bring you into rapid eye movement.

If you only have a short amount of time and you need an energy boost sharpish, then according to the team at AsapScience a power nap is the way forward. But in order for it to rejuvenate your brain and not leave you groggier than before, you need to make sure that you sleep for 30 minutes or less. Any longer than that and you will have entered the deeper cycles of sleep, from which waking will be a bit of a nightmare.

The discovery of this information has seen ‘nap salons’ pop up all around Japan, whereby tired workers on their breaks can pop in and take a quick nap while their boss thinks they are at the sushi bar!

Right I’m off to try this out, if anyone needs me I’ll be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz