Naps
This is not your typical technical blog post. It’s about something I’ve started doing personally to increase my productivity at work. And it’s been around since the beginning of time.
Naps.
It started because I had a 5 week old baby at home, so I would occasionally be a little more tired than usual at work. We have a room at work with a recliner, so I went in there, closed the door, turned the lights off, and took a 15 minute nap.
When I got up… wow. I felt like my eyes were so wide open that people were going to look at me funny walking down the hall. This was better than caffeine.
I now have a 7 week old baby at home who is nice enough to sleep through the night now, so I’m getting back to my normal sleep schedule at night. But most days I still take a nap. All it takes is 15 minutes and the lunch coma is gone. Afterwards I find that I’m thinking so much clearer, and I generally do things much faster than before I rested.
I’ve always joked about how work would be so much easier if I could take a nap in the middle of the day. I guess it actually works.
I’m not a napper. When I fall asleep in my recliner sometimes, it’s because I’m unusually exhausted, but otherwise I just can’t nap.
Let me ask you this: do you usually eat breakfast? Do you think that has any relation to napping?
I always eat breakfast. I don’t know if that relates to napping or not. Exercising would probably help more than anything, the days that I exercise in the morning I usually feel great (that doesn’t happen much these days).
Apparently this Wall Street Journal article backs you up with some real science. Apparently there is a trick to how long and when you take the nap. Just got off a 10 minute nap and I feel great.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323932604579050990895301888.html