You’ve probably heard it before: all the best take naps. Bill Clinton, during his presidency, took naps (with whom is still to be determined).
The number one fear among those who don’t nap: if I take a nap, I’ll be tired the rest of the day!
The key to napping is to time it correctly.
Recent studies have shown that “90-minute cycles…our ultradian rhythms” are where we’re at our peak productivity. 20-minute troughs in between are where we should break, stretch, distract ourselves, walk outside, readjust, or nap.
The study also found that “[t]op-tier violinists practice no more than 4 1/2 hours a day, in 90-minute bursts, plus they got more sleep than their peers (notably, 20-30 minute afternoon naps)”. That afternoon break allows them the ability to do four “r”s:
• Relax
• Rest
• Reset
• Rejuvenate
Relax: Your muscles become less tense, your blood pressure decreases, and headaches disappear
Rest: Your body requires downtime, this is the most effective way
Reset: Your trains of thought are stopped and reoriented, and pick up in a clearer place than when you fell asleep. The problems you had before napping are more easily solved or put into perspective afterwards.
Rejuvenate: You have more energy waking up if you time your nap correctly.
That twenty or thirty minute nap could be the difference between success and productivity or drowsiness, anxiety, irritability, and dead-ends.
But, you say, “my work schedule doesn’t allow for naps!”
The ideal afternoon nap time is between 3 and 5 PM. If there is zero way you can steal away twenty minutes for a nap, don’t neglect that break! Use it to go and walk around outside (best), or at the very least step away from your desk. Staying in place and changing tasks is not a recipe for productivity but for burnout.
The ideal is that afternoon nap.