25 Napping Facts Every College Student Should Know
-
According to Dr. Matthew Walker of the University of California,
napping for as little as one hour resets your short-term memory and
helps you learn facts more easily after you wake up.
-
Foregoing sleep by cramming all night reduces your ability to
retain information by up to 40%. If you can, mix in a nap somewhere to
refresh your hippocampus.
-
If you know you have to pull an all-nighter, try a "prophylactic
nap." It's a short nap in advance of expected sleep deprivation that
will help you stay alert for up to 10 hours afterwards.
-
Human bodies naturally go through two phases of deep tiredness, one
between 2-4 a.m. and between 1-3 p.m. Skipping lunch won't help this
period of diminished alertness and coordination.
-
After lunch in the early afternoon your body naturally gets tired.
This is the best time to take a brief nap, as it's early enough to not
mess with your nighttime sleep.
-
A 60-minute nap improves alertness for 10 hours, although with naps
over 45 minutes you risk what's known as "sleep inertia," that groggy
feeling that may last for half an hour or more.
-
For healthy young adults, naps as short as 20, 10, or even 2
minutes can be all you need to get the mental benefits of sleep, without
risking grogginess.
-
The way this works is you drink a cup of coffee right before taking
your 20-minute or half-hour nap, which is precisely how long caffeine
takes to kick in. That way when you wake up, you're not only refreshed,
but ready to go.
-
A little group called NASA discovered that just a 26-minute nap
increases performance by 34% and alertness by 54%. Pilots take advantage
of NASA naps while planes are on autopilot.
-
Even if you can't fall asleep for a nap, just laying down and
resting has benefits. Studies have found resting results in lowered
blood pressure, which even some college kids have to worry about if they
are genetically predisposed to high blood pressure.
-
A multi-year Greek study found napping at least three times per
week for at least 30 minutes resulted in a 37% lower death rate due to
heart problems.
-
Not only will napping improve your alertness, it will also help your decision-making, creativity, and sensory perception.
-
Studies have found napping raises your stamina 11%, increases
ability to stay asleep all night by 12%, and lowers the time required to
fall asleep by 14%.
-
According to Dr. Sara Mednick, the best nap occurs when REM sleep
is in proportion to slow-wave sleep. Use her patented Take A Nap Nap
Wheel to calculate what time of day you can nap to the max.
-
Research shows that women who sleep five hours at night are 32%
more likely to experience major weight gain than those sleeping seven
hours. A two-hour nap isn't feasible for many, but napping is a good way
to make up for at least some lost night sleep.
-
Presidents JFK and Bill Clinton used to nap every day to help ease
the heavy burden of ruling the free world. Of course, they also had
other relaxation methods, but we won't get into those.
-
In ancient Rome, everyone, including children, retreated for a 2 or
3-hour nap after lunch. No doubt this is the reason the Roman empire
lasted over 1,000 years.
-
The latest you want to wake up from a nap is five hours before
bedtime, otherwise you risk not being able to fall asleep at night.
-
When we are tired, we instinctively reach for foods with a high
glycemic index, but after the initial energy wears off, we're left more
tired than we were before.
-
If it takes you less than five minutes to fall asleep at night, you
are sleep deprived. If you never can seem to get to bed earlier at
night, a mid-day nap is a great way to catch up on sleep.
-
Freshmen and sophomores who are still in your teens: you need up to
10 hours of sleep to feel rested. So odds are, you are sleep-deprived.
-
After one school-week of not getting enough sleep, three alcoholic
drinks will affect you the same way six would when you are fully rested.
-
Don't be afraid to take advantage of an "emergency nap" on the side
of the road in your car. Every year, as many as 100,000 traffic
fatalities are caused by sleepy people behind the wheel.
-
If you are concerned about sleeping too long, do what Albert
Einstein regularly did: hold a pencil while you're drifting off, so when
you fall asleep, the pencil dropping will wake you up. (We do not
guarantee you will wake up with a 180 IQ.)
-
For people ages 18 to 24, sleep deprivation impairs performance more significantly than in other age brackets.
No comments:
Post a Comment