How to take the perfect nap

The Christmas holidays are over and with them the chance to catch up on all the sleep you missed during the school year.

As the assignments pile up in the new year and the classes seem to be demanding more and more, the comfort you felt over the holidays will be a distant memory, replaced with the feeling of fatigue and stress.

Luckily, science is on the students’ side, with years of research being conducted and finally, a detailed plan on how to take the perfect nap has been released.

“Since the ’80s, there’s been a surge in scientific studies on the health and productivity benefits of napping,” said Brendan Brown, co-founder of the Art of Wellbeing website.

According to the research, naps increase productivity and overall wellbeing, but one must plan ahead to get the ideal results,

“NASA performed a study on their pilots and they determined that 26 minutes is the perfect amount of time for peak performance and alertness,” Brown said. “On some tasks, their performance improved by 40 per cent.”

In his article on the Art of Wellbeing, Brown wrote that the perfect time during the day to take a nap is between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

“Humans have a cycle in which we experience a period of intense sleepiness during this time,” Brown said.

To truly delve deep into the science behind our internal clocks, the National Sleep Foundation conducted studies on the two body systems in which our sleep is regulated.

First, humans have the sleep/wake homeostasis, which reminds us that the need for sleep is accumulating after we have been awake for a long period of time. It also helps us maintain enough sleep throughout the night in order to make it through the day.

The second system that regulates our sleep is the circadian biological clock, which regulates the sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day. According to the website, due to this system adults’ strongest sleep drive occurs between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and in the afternoon between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The next step to taking a perfect nap is to make sure you know the perfect length. As mentioned above, NASA conducted a survey and discovered that 26 minutes was the most productive for their pilots.

“If students really want an afternoon pick-me-up, they could consider a ‘napspresso’,” Brown said. “Caffeine requires 20 or 30 minutes to take effect and therefore if you drink a coffee just before a short nap, it will kick in just as you’re waking up.”

As illustrated in the research, it is difficult to find a downside to napping and there are actually six specific benefits that come with catching some Z’s.

NASA found that a 26-minute nap enhanced performance by 34 per cent and overall alertness by 54 per cent. Napping has been found to boost a type of memory process that increases creativity.

The research also illustrated that napping can improve memory and learning abilities.

Napping at least three times a week for 30 minutes or more has been associated with a 37 per cent lower risk of death from heart disease according to a 2007 study conducted by Harvard’s School of Public Health.

The final two benefits found in the research that come along with napping are lowering your blood pressure as well as a number of scientifically proven psychological benefits. A nap helps you relax, rejuvenate and reduce stress levels.

Certain companies are beginning to understand that napping during work hours actually increases the productivity of their employees. Should Fanshawe take the same approach that Facebook, Google, Nike and the Huffington Post has taken and implement napping pods?

The 6 main benefits of napping

7 steps to the perfect nap