Powernapping A nap always helps

Powernapping leads to significantly increased performance
The short nap is ascribed a very positive effect in the course of the day with the onset of fatigue, but many employees do not recognize the benefits of power-napping or simply do not find the time to do so during their stressful working day. The sleep researcher Professor Jürgen Zulley urges therefore for the nap, which is an elementary part of our biological program and not just a superfluous habit.

Why should sleep at noon, is obvious to the sleep researcher Professor Zulley. "People are physically and mentally less efficient at noon, their body temperature is lower, and they fall asleep quickly," says Zulley. At work, activities would tend to be slower during this period, workers would be more inefficient and more mistakes would occur at work. Company bosses have already reported that they could have switched off the assembly line at noon because so many mistakes were made at that time. The short power mapping will significantly increase the performance afterwards.

Powernapping in the office increases efficiency. (Image: contrastwerkstatt / fotolia.com)

What advantage does the nap have??
Asked if afternoon nap only bridges the underachieving time or boosts performance, Zulley answers that both are true. After a nap, people reacted more quickly, worked more attentively and with greater concentration, and the people in question were in a better mood than colleagues without a nap, and that was sustainable. Even the memory helps a nap on the jumps. So the learned can be better reflected after a nap than without nap. Today it is no longer the question of whether the performance is increased, but how such a short sleep in the world of work can be planned. With a very short break, there's often little time for lunch and a nap, but according to Professor Zulley, the nap should not take more than ten to thirty minutes anyway. For professionals, the ten minutes are the optimum, beginners in the art of nap usually need a little longer.

Do not sleep for more than half an hour
If the afternoon nap lasts longer than 30 minutes, then those affected have problems to wake up and drowsiness is spreading, so Zulley. No special arrangements would have to be made for the nap. Lying down, darkening the room or providing peace, was not necessary. However, the head should lie relaxed, the eyes should be closed and those affected simply relax. Especially the latter, so switching off within a few minutes, must be learned. Normally, the waking up of itself, but as an aid can also serve a coffee before nap. Because the caffeine only works after about thirty minutes and therefore acts as a kind of biological alarm clock. So let the sleep drunkenness after nap avoid. Also, a walk after nap is recommended, as it brings the cycle back into swing.

Even companies take advantage of the afternoon nap
According to Professor Zulley, companies are increasingly recognizing the benefits of nap, and so for example IBM, Apple and even the French Atomic Energy Commission would offer their employees special rest rooms. Lounger chairs may soon be an ordinary part of the basic office equipment. Too often, daytime sleep is simply ignored in modern day life. With the industrialization of the afternoon nap was virtually banished. But gradually, the napping is increasingly taken into account again, especially because the performance is thereby sustainably increased. (Fp)