How to Take a Productive Nap

The key to taking a productive nap is timing. You need to learn the right timing for the length of your nap: too short and it'll do nothing, too long and you'll get groggy. You also need to learn when in the day it's most productive to nap, because if you nap too late you'll wreak havoc with your body's established sleep rhythms. This article will lay out in plain English the most important facts that sleep researchers have discovered, so that you can learn what you need to know to take a productive nap.

When Naps Are Great
A productive nap can definitely be a good thing, and research has shown that napping smart can help you feel more energetic and be more industrious and creative on the job. When your body doesn't get enough sleep, it demands a nap so that it can re-fuel and work more efficiently when you wake up. This desire for rest is healthy, because after you've taken a productive nap, you'll have more focus and stamina. To talk your boss into letting you nap on the job, steer her or him to this 2006 article in Time Magazine on the growing trend of workplace napping.

When Naps Are Bad
Unfortunately, not all naps are created equal, and some of them do more harm than good. The wrong kind of nap can wreak havoc with your sleep schedule, leaving you feeling more exhausted than you were before you nodded off. If you've had bad experiences with napping, it's probably because you didn't know how to take a productive nap, but have no fear: it's as easy as counting sheep once you know the facts. For a productive nap that will refresh you without confusing your body's sleep clock or impeding your ability to change your sleep schedule for the better, read on and learn to avoid common nap mistakes like sleeping too long, or sleeping at the wrong times.

Sleeping Too Long
An ideal length for a productive nap is between twenty and forty minutes. This allows you to enter a light and refreshing sleep, but gets you up again before you enter REM sleep. If you enter REM sleep, the only way to escape feeling groggy when you wake up is to sleep through the complete cycle, which means a full night of sleep. So, for a productive nap, it's best to cut yourself off before you fall into REM sleep. The number one hindrance to having a productive nap is sleeping too long. This is a simple trap to fall into, because when people are very tired we sometimes have difficulty making rational decisions. This means that you may be tempted to hit snooze on your alarm and slip into REM sleep because it feels so good, even though your rational mind knows it would be smarter and healthier for you to wake up. For the details of why you want "slow-wave," or light sleep, instead of deep REM sleep, check out this article "Snooze Power" in Science News Online.

How To Wake Yourself Up
To take a productive nap, you need to either have enough self-discipline to get off the couch when your alarm sounds, or you need to have enough smarts to figure out a way to force yourself to wake up. Try putting your alarm clock way across the room, in a locked desk drawer, or hidden behind a pile of books or papers. That way, by the time you reach the snooze button, you'll be awake enough to remember not to hit it! With a little practice, you can set up a way to wake yourself successfully so that it's easy to take a productive nap without oversleeping. Ehow's "How To Wake Up Revived Page" has some helpful hints for waking up after a nap, or after a night's sleep.

Sleeping Too Late
Another common barrier to a productive nap is trying to catch a few winks too late in the day. Your body regulates its sleep cycle based on the amount of light that comes through your eyes to the brain. When you nap, you deprive your system of light, and your body begins to wonder if it is night time. To stop your brain from resetting your sleep cycle based on your napping habits, remember that a nap is only a productive nap if you can follow it with a quick influx of sunshine. Plan your productive nap so that you wake up before three in the afternoon, then throw open your windows or pop outside for a minute as soon as you wake up. This will tell your system that it's still daytime, and that you weren't trying to sleep through the night, but were just having a productive nap! Wikipedia's "Circadian Rhythm" entry has some fun facts about the sleep cycles of people, animals, and even plants.