Want to increase your productivity? Sleep.
Counter-intuitive as it may sound, sleeping actually increases your productivity. And I don’t mean the regular night-time sleep (you require that just to survive). I mean afternoon naps.
That’s right. Studies have shown afternoon naps increase the productivity of workers. NASA pilots, for example, increased their performance by a whopping 34% just from a short 26 minutes afternoon nap.
Other studies have shown people who took afternoon naps are more alert, better at learning, focus better and have better memory. In fact, in his book, “Talent is Overrated”, Geoff Colvin mentioned a study about how people who achieved great success in their lifetime did not work through the day and night. In fact, they tend to take more afternoon naps than their “droning” counterparts.
Coincidence?
But why is an afternoon essential for productivity?
Us, human beings, live through various cycles in our life. One of the most popular cycles, is of course, the circadian rhythm. We wake up in the morning, and we go to sleep at night.
What most people don’t know is that later studies found that the circadian rhythm also dictates that we should sleep in the afternoon - at about 3 pm, a full 12 hours from our last REM sleep.
The researchers who found out about this also noted that our body temperature tend to fall in the afternoon - consistent with the pattern of sleep at night. (Yes, unlike what you’re taught at school, your body temperature don’t stay constant at 36.9 degrees Celsius.
By fighting against the natural rhythm, your brain has to separate its attention to deal with it. It’s like there two armies in your brain: the subconscious wants to sleep and the conscious wants to stay awake to work. Believe me: the subconscious always wins.
But have you ever wonder why we need to sleep? If you’re sleeping less than 6 hours a day, you might want to rethink your strategy.
Though cannot be proven to be true, some scientists have theorized that humans need to sleep at night because the brain required the time to consolidate what it learned for the day. Sleeping also clears the way for the information it is expecting tomorrow.
Sleeping, therefore, is a lot like shelving. You brain “shelfs” what it has learned today so that it is free to learn what’s coming tomorrow…
This is probably why people who get enough sleep remember better (shelving) and they learn better (ready for tomorrow’s information).
To verify (not prove), researchers can see (through brain scans) that the brain is never at rest… even when you’re asleep. In fact, it looks like it’s busier than when you’re awake!
So there, another reason to sleep: Brain fitness.
