Sleeping On The Job Is Good For You: New Scientific Studies Prove Taking A Power-Nap Increases Perfo

Dec. 13, 2007 - PRLog -- When's the last time your boss told you to go ahead and take a nap at work?  After your boss and coworkers hear this news, this might be happening more often than you might think.

Sleeping on the job traditionally has been frowned on by managers nationwide.   Yet, with Americans working longer and harder everyday, the stress of the daily grind often takes its toll, with many workers becoming very tired during the day.   Fortunately, now, a growing number of scientific studies are showing that taking a power-nap can prevent burnout, while increasing performance, and that napping in the afternoon is actually much better than a hit of caffeine, or even extra morning sleep.

In a landmark new study, presented to the WolrdSleep 07 conference in Cairns ( www.sleeping.org.uk/news/documents/Ab_2005.pdf ), Dr. Clare Anderson from Loughborough University analyzed fatigue-beating techniques to see how they affected a person's levels of alertness.  "The caffeine didn't perform so well, only showing improvements within two hours of drinking it," said lead researcher Dr Clare Anderson.   However, "We found that the nap was much more effective... the improvement in their state was strong, immediate and lasted right until a test we took at 7.45pm that night,"  Dr. Anderson revealed.  

Yet for folks with truly stressful jobs, will a quick nap really do any good?   NASA was concerned too, since American astronauts are constantly working long hours in a very stressful environment.  To find out, NASA recently funded a study on napping ( science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/03jun_naps.htm ).  In those experiments, led by David Dinges, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, volunteers spent days living on one of 18 different sleep schedules, all in a laboratory setting.  To measure how effective the naps were, the scientists gave the volunteers a battery of tests probing memory, alertness, response time, and other cognitive skills throughout the experiment.  The scientists found that working memory performance actually did benefit from the naps.  

That's great news for our men and women working in space, but how about down on Earth?   Is it actually effective and practical to nap at work?   Experimenters wanted to know too.   The National Institute of Mental Health's ( www.nih.gov/news/pr/jul2002/nimh-02.htm ), funded a team of doctors, led by Alan Hobson, M.D., Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., and colleagues at Harvard University in a study that showed a midday snooze reverses information overload.  Reporting in Nature Neuroscience, Sara Mednick, Ph.D., Stickgold and colleagues also demonstrated that "burnout" irritation, frustration and poorer performance on a mental task can set in as a day of training wears on.  Their study also proved that in some cases napping could even boost performance back to morning levels.   The NIMH team wrote "The bottom line is: we should stop feeling guilty about taking that "power-nap" at work."

How to get the rest you need on the job

Though when we want to nap, especially in the workplace, it may be difficult to take a nap on cue, at a prescribed break-time.  So, settling into a nap when you need to can be difficult.  Most experts recommend a dim, relatively quiet environment if possible, but often that's not easy, so what can be done to get the rest we need?    To provide a solution, researchers at Power-Nap.com used advanced computer technology to combine the brain-wave patterns of an accelerated sleep cycle with the sound a peaceful waterfall, creating the Nap-Machine(TM) that helps listeners feel rested, relaxed, and rejuvenated in record time.  Users say it gives them the feeling of 3 hours of deep sleep in just 20 minutes.  "It's a great way to get the extra energy that I need for my day!" raved Erica Brown, a school teacher from Utah.   The digital audio technology is now also available as an inexpensive audio CD for only $9.95, available at www.Power-Nap.com/pr2


Whatever napping you do, experts agree that a good nights' sleep is still essential too, but for those long hard days at the office, arm yourself with this information: an afternoon nap has scientific proof showing it's good for you, it helps improve your performance, your memory and helps prevent burnout.    So now, next time you've got a short work break, rather than take a hit of caffeine, try a quick power-nap and see how much better you'll feel afterwards.  Your boss may be next.


References:

Nap vs. Caffeine Study:  www.sleeping.org.uk/news/documents/Ab_2005.pdf
NIMH Study:  www.nih.gov/news/pr/jul2002/nimh-02.htm
NASA Study:  science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/03jun_naps.htm
Power-Nap:  www.Power-Nap.com/pr2

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Contact:  

Steven / Power-Nap Media Relations  
www.power-nap.com/media
Or call (216) 245-1220

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Power-Nap was designed with the goal in mind of developing an affordable, non-addictive, non-habit-forming and completely safe way to re-energize the mind and body. After extensive independent research into sleep requirements, it was discovered that it was possible to use carrier waves to produce audible recordings of natural sleep waves which provide the benefits of a long sleep in a short time.

Now, years later, Power-Nap has become a phenomenal success and a household word.

Website: Power-Nap.com/pr1