5 Minute Naps

Published in 2013, the New York Times article “Manage Fatigue in a Nonstop World With a Nap” by Tony Schwartz (2013) insisted that even short naps can improve our performances based on his experience and studies. Knowing the importance of sleep, Schwartz decided to take a nap when his energy was due to lack of sleep. According to him, after his 15 to 20-minute nap, his mind was refreshed and he found no trouble to get back to his work, which he could not even imagine to do earlier. He refered to the study in which the effects of naps of 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes were examined: although the 5 minute nap did not show any impact, these 10 plus minute naps contributed to better performance on cognitive test of memory conducted in the following two and a half hours. Schwartz also mentioned that while 10 minute nap-takers can improve their performances immediately, those who take a nap for 20 plus minutes experience “sleep inertia,” which is a phenomenon of grogginess upon waking. Refereing to Sara Medick’s research (2003), which revealed that longer naps may induce more sleep inertia, Schwartz concluded 90 minute is the best length of a nap.
Psychological Concepts Involved in Naps and Memory-Based Performance
These foundings of the relationship between naps and improvement on the cognitive test can be related to the concepts of …show more content…
It had been thought that sleeping is important because it secures our brains from new information so that it can store the information we get while we are awake. However, through studies, it appeared that reactivation of memory and consolidation - transforming short-term memory to long-term memory - is what brains are doing while human bodies are sleeping. To clarify how exactly sleeping affects our memory, an experiment called “nighthalf paradigm” was