What are the main benefits of napping?
Research on sleep deprivation shows that even at six hours a night, there are all sorts of changes in the body. Insulin rises to pre-diabetes levels. There’s an increase in heart disease. Without sleep you don’t learn. My research shows that people deteriorate during the day. It’s difficult to sustain productivity. Naps can add back to the sleep you’re deprived of at night. And a nap enhances productivity even if you have enough nocturnal sleep. You describe an “optimized napping formula” in your book. What is that? A nap involves different stages of sleep that lead to different kinds of improvements. Rapid eye movement [REM] sleep, for example, is good for improving creativity and perceptual ability. Slow-wave [deep] sleep is good for restoring muscle function. The formula helps you harness those. So what would be the optimum nap for a middle-aged executive working long hours? A 20-minute nap in the afternoon, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., right after lunch, would be ideal. You don’t wan
