Thomas Edison did it all the time. So did Winston Churchill. And just about every one of us had childhood training to be a star in the field. What field is that? Why, napping, of course. Yet despite these famous examples and early practice, most of us would never dream of napping on a regular basis – or admitting it if we did.Call it a “power nap” if you’re feeling trendy, or a “catnap” if you’re more traditional.
The key is to recognize that sleep isn’t a simple on-0ff switch, but a set of cycles. A typical sleep cycle includes five to ten minutes of falling asleep, then another ten minutes or so of light, restful sleep. Then comes an hour or more of deep and dreamless “slow-wave sleep” followed by a quick period of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, when the most vivid dreams occur. All told, a single sleep cycle takes most people 90 to 120 minutes.
If your nap includes just the first two stages, you get the rest without the dazed feeling that can come from being awakened from slow-wave sleep. So for most people, a 15 or 20 minute nap is good, a 90 or 120 minute nap (a full cycle) is good, but in between is much less restful. It’s those short naps that are the energizing power naps that all nap addicts go on about.
