How the power nap will improve your life

Yesterday I wrote about my four o'clock chocolate-chip-grape-French cheese craving. That need actually goes hand in hand with the need to close your eyes for a moment. Calling thirteen more people, answering twenty emails, and typing three pieces scream for an afternoon nap.

And you know what? That's okay. In fact, it boosts your performance. I know that Eva Jinek sometimes secretly sat in the corner of the editorial office, semi-lost in thought, looking out the window while she was actually just taking a pre-show power nap. Beau Van Erven Dorens used to lie stretched out under a desk during my Boulevard time, and for bankers and actors in Manhattan, there are even special MetroNaps where you can close your eyes undisturbed for a moment. A power nap is a small investment of time with great results. Sounds like music to my ears.

What a power nap must meet

Remember that you are not lazy

Taking a nap in the middle of the day clashes with our Calvinistic nature, but that twenty-minute investment boosts your productivity, improves your memory, and lowers your stress level.

Nap preferably in the morning

Just a technical detour. Your sleep pattern consists of five phases, where you fall asleep in phase 1 and enter your refreshing stage in phase 2. The five sleep stages take a total of 90 minutes and then start all over again. With a power nap, it's important to wake up after phase two. That's after about twenty minutes. In the afternoon, you are more tired, and there is a good chance that you will wake up too late, making you moody instead of fresh and fruity.

Eat light and don't drink coffee

If you've eaten a lot and heavy and drunk a lot coffee you won't fall asleep so easily. Therefore, choose calcium-rich food with plenty of protein.

Find a clean, quiet spot.

You have super sleepers like Beau, for example, but there is a chance that you will need to get used to your daytime sleep a bit. A little bed in a quiet place will help you.

Make it dark

Close the curtains or wear a sleep mask. When it's dark, you produce melatonin, and that helps you fall asleep.

Make sure you have a blanket

When you sleep, your body temperature drops. Raise the temperature a few degrees or throw a nice blanket over yourself.

Set your alarm

If you're lying comfortably and feel that ‘this is going to work’, then, just before you close your eyes, set your alarm. In twenty minutes, you'll feel reborn, bet?