Many greats used to take a nap during the day — including Napoleon, Edison, Einstein and Churchill. We should follow their example — short naps increase productivity.
Sometimes in the middle of the day the eyes get stuck together. We begin to nod off, but we struggle with sleep with all our might, even if there is an opportunity to lie down: after all, you need to sleep at night. At least that’s how it is in our culture.
nature’s demand
But the Chinese can afford to take a nap right at the workplace. Daytime sleep is a common thing for residents of many countries, from India to Spain. And perhaps they are closer to their nature in this sense. Jim Horne, director of the Institute for Sleep Research at Loughborough University (UK), believes that humans are evolutionarily programmed to sleep short during the day and long at night. “There is growing scientific evidence that naps, even very short ones, improve cognitive function,” continues Jonathan Friedman, director of the Texas Brain Institute. “Perhaps, over time, we will learn to consciously use it in order to make our brain work more productively.”
Better learn new things
“Daytime naps sort of clear short-term memory storage, after which the brain is again ready to receive and store new information,” says University of California psychologist Matthew Walker. Under his leadership, a study was conducted in which 39 healthy young people participated. They were divided into 2 groups: some had to take a nap during the day, while others were awake throughout the day. During the experiment, they had to complete tasks that required memorization of a large amount of information.
Daytime sleep affects the functioning of a part of the brain that plays an important role in moving information from short-term memory to long-term memory.
They received their first task at noon, then at 2 pm, participants from the first group went to bed for an hour and a half, and at 6 pm both groups received another task. It turned out that those who slept during the day, coped with the evening task better than those who were awake. Moreover, this group performed better in the evening than during the day.
Matthew Walker believes that daytime sleep affects the hippocampus, an area of the brain that plays an important role in moving information from short-term memory to long-term memory. Walker likens it to an overflowing email inbox that can no longer receive new letters. Daytime sleep clears our “mailbox” for about an hour, after which we are again able to perceive new portions of information.
Andrey Medvedev, Associate Professor at Georgetown University, has shown that during a short daytime sleep, the activity of the right hemisphere, which is responsible for creativity, is significantly higher than that of the left. This happens to both lefties and righties. The right hemisphere takes on the role of «cleaner», sorting and storing information. Thus, a short daytime sleep helps us to better remember the information received.
How to «correctly» take a nap
Here’s what a sleepwalker at the Salk Institute for Biological Research in California, author of Sleep During the Day, Changes Your Life!1 Sara C. Mednick
Be consistent. Choose the time that suits you for daytime sleep (optimally — from 13 to 15 hours) and stick to this regimen.
Don’t sleep long. Set an alarm for a maximum of 30 minutes. If you sleep longer, you will feel overwhelmed.
Sleep in the dark. Close the curtains or put on a sleep mask to fall asleep faster.
Take cover. Even if the room is warm, just in case, put a blanket nearby to cover when you get cold. After all, during sleep, the body temperature drops.
For details, see lifehack.org
1 S. Mednick «Take a Nap! Change Your Life» (Workman Publishing Company, 2006).