Synopses & Reviews
Imagine a product that increases alertness, boosts creativity, reduces stress, improves perception, stamina, motor skills, and accuracy, enhances your sex life, helps you make better decisions, keeps you looking younger, aids in weight loss, reduces the risk of heart attack, elevates your mood, and strengthens memory. Now imagine that this product is nontoxic, has no dangerous side effects, and, best of all, is absolutely
free.
This miracle drug is, in fact, nothing more than the nap: the right nap at the right time. The work of Sara C. Mednick, Ph.D., a researcher at the Salk Institute and the leading authority on the study of the nap, Take a Nap! Change Your Life. is the scientifically-based breakthrough program that shows how we can fight the fatigue epidemic—which afflicts an estimated 50 million Americans—through a custom-designed nap. Take a Nap! Change Your Life. explains the five stages of the sleep cycle, particularly Stage Two, Slow Wave Sleep, and REM, and the benefits each one provides; how to assess your tiredness and set up a personal sleep profile; and how to neutralize the voice in your head that tells you napping is a sign of laziness. (Not that anyone would have called JFK, Churchill, Einstein, or Napoleon a slug-a-bed.) Using the unique Nap Wheel on the cover and interior graphs and charts, it shows us exactly when our optimum napping time is, and exactly how long we should try to sleep—even how its possible to design a nap to inspire creativity one day, and the next day design one to help us with our memory. There are tips on how to create the right nap environment, a 16-step technique for falling asleep, a six-week napping workbook, and more.
Review
“A wake-up call! Dr. Sara Mednick’s groundbreaking research provides compelling evidence that a midday snooze provides incredible physiological, psychological and cognitive benefits, and is the basis for her easy-to-follow program. If you want to be fully alert, energetic and in a good mood all day long, you’ll need to Take a Nap.”—Dr. James B. Maas, Cornell University; author, New York Times bestseller Power Sleep
Synopsis
A scientifically based breakthrough program, TAKE A NAP! CHANGE YOUR LIFE teaches you how to plan the optimum nap: when to take it, how long to sleep, how not to wake up groggy— and how to neutralize the voice in your head that tells you napping is a sign of laziness. Its not. Napping is a sign of taking control of your life. It increases alertness • Boosts creativity • Reduces stress • Enhances libido • Aids in weight loss • Keeps you looking younger • Reduces the risk of heart attack • Elevates mood • Strengthens memory • Clarifies decision-making • Improves productivity. And feels great.
About the Author
Mark Ehrman is a freelance writer whose work appears regularly in The Los Angeles Times, Playboy, InStyle, and many other newspapers and magazines.Sara Mednick, Ph.D., is a research scientist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. She is a consultant for the military and private business, and her napping research has been covered by CNN, Reuters, NPR, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Real Simple, and Mens Journal. She has a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard and lives in San Diego.
Table of Contents
Contents Introduction: The Couch at Harvard xi
Part One: The Basics
Chapter 1. The new nap: not your grandfather's siesta 3
It is written . . . in our DNA 4
The siesta is dead. Long live the nap! 7
Chapter 2. Fatigue: a hidden epidemic 10
The walking tired 11
Asleep on the job: a threat to safety 12
Warning: Losing sleep is hazardous to your health 16
Chapter 3. The nap manifesto: what napping can do for you 23
Part Two: The Principles
Chapter 4. The stages of sleep: building blocks of the nap 31
Waves and scans: the sleeping brain revealed 32
The sleep cycle 33
To be continued . . . 44
Chapter 5. Dissecting sleep: making a nap work for you 45
The shadow cycles 46
Stage 2: the constant companion 50
Napping vs. nighttime sleep 51
Chapter 6. Optimized Napping: the secret formula 55
The lark and the owl 56
A nap to call your own 59
How to use the Nap Wheel 61
Part Three: The Program
Chapter 7. Your sleep profile: getting to know yourself 65
How tired are you? 66
Checking your calendar 67
Different naps for different folks 75
Chapter 8. Nap time: it's easier than you think 85
It's about time 86
Clearing the way 86
Free your mind and your nap will follow 95
Okay, you're cleared to nap! 97
Stay motivated! 102
Chapter 9. Extreme napping: exploring the outer limits 103
Ü berman to the rescue? 104
Napping for "normal" emergencies 109
Napping across time zones 113
Chapter 10. A nap-positive society 117
Workers of the world, nap! 119
Power points of workplace napping 122
Appendix
Glossary 127
The scientific formula for creating the precise nap to suit your needs 139