What has napping ever done for you?

Anyone who has dipped their toes in the world of fitness can tell you what all the fitness trainers say the pillars of getting in shape are: exercise, diet and recovery!

Of course who can argue with this but personally, and I know many of you out there will agree, we fall into this paradox where we feel we aren’t doing enough!

Being busy doesn’t mean you are being productive.

So, very often when we should be resting, we feel guilty for having empty time and need to prove our worth by doing loads more than we should. This behaviour can be found outside our fitness too. Very often with learning also, we don’t even think of recovery as necessary.

Learning ANYTHING entails you breaking neural habits and creating new pathways, this can be incredibly demanding, and sleep very often should be seen as a way to consolidate this learning. The research backs this up!! Want to work smarter, not harder? Take a 70-90 minute nap after learning to be able to perform better!

The 3 pillars of fitness can have their equivalents in learning: exercise, information diet, and recovery. What do you do as part of your learning, what material you include in your learning, and recovery, a.k.a. sleep.

A recent study done, looked at 3 groups, 1 had a nap after learning, 1 did nothing, 1 did activity. After 70 minutes they all had a test and then the next day they had another test. The nap group did so much better than the other 2. The group that did nothing came last, with the silver medal going to the group that did activity. This proves that napping is doing something. Doing nothing is doing nothing. How many people actually say they find it difficult to switch off for long enough to nap? Are you one of these people?

My thesis then is for comedic effect, but there is a ring of truth to it: People who develop the ability to nap, have the ability to do anything!

What has napping ever done for you? Want to be more productive mentally? Want to retain more information that you are studying? What to get more from the exercise you do?

Sleep on it!