A mid-afternoon nap of just 10 to 20 minutes will improve your alertness, creativity and performance.

Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali were all great believers in the power nap. And so am I;-)

A mid-afternoon nap of just 10 to 20 minutes will improve your alertness, creativity and performance. Anything longer, might “enslave” you with laziness for the rest of the afternoon. (Salvador Dali’s words, not mine.)

Because of the natural cycles of our circadian rhythms, we are at our most tired twice during a 24-hour period. For most of us the peak of sleepiness is in the middle of the night and in the middle of the afternoon. In other words, the dreaded mid-afternoon slump is part of human nature!

So rather than fighting it off with tea, coke or coffee, try a short nap to refresh your brain before taking on the afternoon.

How to Nap? Things you can do to relax:

Turn off your phone.

Set an alarm for half an hour so that that you know you won’t fall asleep for hours.

Set your napping space up with as little light as possible and use ear plugs to help tune out disruptions.

Keep warm with a blanket.

If you have the time you can try to read something relaxing (or boring!) for 10 minutes first.

I am still new at this and I do not manage to nod off as often as I’d like, depsite following the above tricks. It doesn’t really matter too much though, as the short break gives me energy regardless. Practise is key. Figuring out what works for you can take a while. Try to experiment with different times of the day and different nap lengths.

Napping at Work

Winston Churchill would take a two-hour nap every day at 5 p.m. He said this allowed him to get 1 1/2 days’ worth of work done every 24 hours. Google, Mercedes-Benz and NASA are all companies that believe in the power of napping. As the Vice President of Google, David Radcliffe says: No workplace is complete without a nap pod.

That nap pod can be any space, really. If you’re self-employed you can use your sofa, as I do. A parked car or the office loo are both nap pods that friends of mine swear by.

And if your boss is not too happy about it? Well, if he or she needs to know you can always show this blog with my convincing argument that you work more efficiently afterwards!

Good luck and thanks for reading.