Adults find napping helps them cope with work, life
When Chad Hall was a grad student in Duke's Divinity School, he went to a speech by noted historical theologian Martin Marty.
Marty, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, is a prolific researcher and author who has published 50 books and countless papers. The grad students were in awe of his productivity.
How does he do it? they wondered. Does he have a huge staff? A team of assistants? Do his grad students do most of his legwork? What's your secret? they wanted to know.
"I take naps," he told the surprised gathering.
"He told us he had a $3 Casio watch that he would set for seven minutes, then he would nap in his chair," recalls Hall. "He had some theory that the body could reach a certain state of relaxation within three minutes. He would do this three or four times a day, and that would allow him to sleep just five hours a night.
"That's all I remember from his talk," Hall says.
It was enough. Being a perpetually pooped grad student, Hall adopted Marty's strategy, and it helped get him through school. He continues to take power naps, maybe once a week, in his job as a professional trainer at SAS Institute in the Raleigh, N.C. area's Research Triangle.
Despite napping's benefits, it's a strategic tool yet to be embraced by the business community at large. Most professionals who nap must sneak sleep on the sly, heading off to their cars, climbing under their desks or even curling up in a bathroom stall to grab a few winks.
But Hall isn't shy about discussing his habit: "It's kinda goofy, but I'm not embarrassed." And he's not worried about his boss finding out that he sleeps on the job.
Probably because just down the hall, Lisa Birmingham is likely to be catching a few midday Zs herself.
The midday nap is as old as man. But it received renewed attention late last year with "Take a Nap! Change Your Life," a short examination by Sara C. Mednick of why naps are good. A research scientist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., Mednick's premise is that a short nap in the early afternoon can lead to a more productive day.
"The 'big picture' message is that napping is a necessary and effective tool that can be used by anyone in pursuit of optimum health, happiness and productivity," Mednick writes in her introduction. "I want to make you a napper."
That, she acknowledges, is a daunting task in a go-go American society where not only is napping frowned upon, but so is sleep in general. Among other telling statistics, she quotes a National Sleep Foundation survey that found 50 million Americans are sleep deprived, that, on average, we now get just 6.7 hours of sleep on weeknights (well short of the recommended eight hours), and that 51 percent of us claim that the drowsies keep us from being as productive as we could be.
While much remains to be learned about what happens when we sleep, Dr. Xavier Preud'Homme, an assistant professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at the Duke School of Medicine (home to the Duke Sleep Disorders Center) says there's little doubt that a nap -- the right kind of nap -- can be a good thing.
"The function of sleep is not altogether fully elucidated yet," says Preud'Homme.
What is known is that sleep -- even a catnap's worth -- helps repair "damage" to the brain incurred during waking hours. Essentially, it gives the brain a chance to catch up from all the information you've been feeding it and decisions you've been asking it to make.
What does Preud'Homme mean by the right kind of nap? That can vary depending upon the individual, but one thing is a given: It shouldn't be longer than 20 minutes.
Twenty minutes is something of a magic nap number: Snooze beyond that and you slip into a deep sleep cycle that's hard to rouse from. Exceed 20 minutes, says Preud'Homme, and you'll be well into the 90-minute sleep cycle that rules our nighttime sleep. You'll be into the stage of sleep where dreams occur and where the brain undergoes a deeper sort of repair.
"You'll wake up at the time when the need for sleep is greatest," says Preud'Homme of the 20-plus nap. "You'll be disoriented. You'll have a harder time getting up."
The best nap, says Preud'Homme, lasts from 10 to 20 minutes. By that definition, Birmingham, Hall's boss at SAS, is a good napper.
"I set my watch timer and lay my head down on my desk for 10 to 15 minutes," says Birmingham. Like Hall, she started napping in grad school; today, she naps maybe once a week.
"If I have fuzzy thinking, if my thinking isn't straight and I keep reading the same paragraph over and over, I'll take a nap," says Birmingham. Most often, that occurs during the infamous post-lunch midafternoon lull, about 2 or 3 p.m.
Preud'Homme is less certain about the 7- to 10-minute power nap that Hall takes.
"Within 10 minutes, we really don't know what happens," Preud'Homme says.
Hall isn't entirely sure, either. He just knows that, for him at least, it works.
"I wouldn't call it sleep," he's quick to add. "It's a relaxed state." From which, he says he emerges "set to go for the rest of the afternoon."
The many benefits of a good nap
In her book, "Take a Nap! Change Your Life" ($12.95, Workman, written with Mark Ehrman), Sara C. Mednick gives 20 reasons for taking a nap. Here are a few:
Increased alertness. NASA studies have shown that alertness can improve 100 percent after a nap. (FYI, astronauts nap.)
Better decision-making. "Pilots who are allowed to nap in the cockpit commit fewer judgment errors on takeoff and landings than those who aren't."
Improved sex life. "Sleep deprivation dampens sex drive and sexual function."
Preserve your youthful looks. "Nothing ages you like fatigue."
Boost your creativity. "Napping allows your brain to create the loose associations necessary for creative insight and opens the way for a fresh burst of new ideas."
Help your memory. "Much of your memory consolidation cannot occur in any meaningful way without sleep. Everything from learning a new language to remembering the periodic table of elements can be improved by adding a short nap between study periods."