In high school, I attended a field hockey camp at Lafayette College. Aside from the physical act of playing field hockey, our team went to a few informational lectures and seminars to aid in improving our performance on and off the field. One of these talks was about the power of a good nap. Little did I know, this tidbit of info would come in handy years later in college.
While Penn State is full of bright and shining individuals, many of these intelligent students don’t know that excessive napping can be dangerous to their weekday sleep patterns. Over-napping can make a you feel even more tired for the remainder of the day, rather than feeling alert and awake. Naps between 40 and 60 minutes actually make us more sleepy. When we fall asleep for these extended periods of time, our body falls into a deep sleep but not nearly long enough to experience a full sleep cycle.
Studies show that the optimal napping time is 26 minutes: the exact amount of time people need to feel more energized and awake, without falling into a deep sleep cycle. Timed naps can improve performance of people in the workplace and in the case of a college crowd, in class. The National Transportation Safety Board did a study with NASA pilots to test their productivity after a 26-minute nap. They found that sleeping for this period of time increased performance by 34% and alertness by 54%. And thus, the 26-minute nap method was born.
While napping for toddlers is used to minimize their level of crankiness, I would argue that it does the same thing for college students. However, in addition to the reduction in crabby attitudes, napping can also make us better learners and listeners. Scientific studies also show that napping for certain periods of time can lead to different benefits depending  on the time asleep. On a broad scale, mini-mid day siestas are shown to enhance memory function, improve focus and productivity, increase our learning ability, boost creativity and better our emotional and procedural memory.
If you ask me, napping is starting to sound better and better as more data and results are revealed. To test out the 26-minute nap theory, there is an app called NAP26. It includes an audio program that uses pulsating beats to create sound vibration. These vibrations signal the brain to enter a more relaxed state. At the end of the 26 minutes, NAP26 wakes you up so that you don't have to worry about sleeping the day away.
Let the power napping begin!
How did the 26-minute nap work for you? Tell me about your experience in the comments.
Stay smilin'.
--Steph