Tired? Take a nap, preWO

[MikeMartial]

The role of a short post-lunch nap in improving cognitive, motor, and sprint performance in participants with partial sleep deprivation.

Waterhouse J, Atkinson G, Edwards B, Reilly T.
Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a post-lunch nap on subjective alertness and performance following partial sleep loss. Ten healthy males (mean age 23.3 years, s = 3.4) either napped or sat quietly from 13:00 to 13:30 h after a night of shortened sleep (sleep 23:00 - 03:00 h only). Thirty minutes after the afternoon nap or control (no-nap) condition, alertness, short-term memory, intra-aural temperature, heart rate, choice reaction time, grip strength, and times for 2-m and 20-m sprints were recorded. The afternoon nap lowered heart rate and intra-aural temperature. Alertness, sleepiness, short-term memory, and accuracy at the 8-choice reaction time test were improved by napping (P < 0.05), but mean reaction times and grip strength were not affected (P > 0.05). Sprint times were improved. Mean time for the 2-m sprints fell from 1.060 s (s(x) = 0.018) to 1.019 s (s(x) = 0.019) (P = 0.031 paired t-test); mean time for the 20-m sprints fell from 3.971 s (s(x) = 0.054) to 3.878 s (s(x) = 0.047) (P = 0.013). These results indicate that a post-lunch nap improves alertness and aspects of mental and physical performance following partial sleep loss, and have implications for athletes with restricted sleep during training or before competition.
PMID: 17852691 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Maybe not applicable to all of us, but to get more out of a workout, a quick 30 minutes of shut eye may make the difference between dragging your ass or a productive workout.

[stewy37]

I can vouch for this. Sometimes when I workout after class all I need to to feel refreshed and ready to train is a 15-30min nap. It makes a world of difference.

Of course, if you're severely sleep deprived it probably won't make much of a difference and you mihgt end up sleeping for a few hours.

[liquid!]

I enjoy a quick power nap before the gym when I'm feeling groggy. Some days I just want to crash after work and dinner.

Thanks for the primary research articles MM. Good stuff can be found nosing around PubMed.

[Mr Bosco]

Yeah right. Like I have a job where I can take a nap. That is realistic.

Not everyone on Sherdog is a teenager or in College/University with loads of free time. Most people like myself have full tiem jobs. I start at 8:30 am and finish at 5:30pm - 6:00pm.

From work I go straight to training then home. If I'm really tired I have a day off. Common sense.

[Clint07]

Originally Posted by Mr Bosco

Yeah right. Like I have a job where I can take a nap. That is realistic.

Not everyone on Sherdog is a teenager or in College/University with loads of free time. Most people like myself have full tiem jobs. I start at 8:30 am and finish at 5:30pm - 6:00pm.

From work I go straight to training then home. If I'm really tired I have a day off. Common sense.

You have a lunch break, take a 15 min nap then.

[Ian Coe]

^^^

I train then



I went through a phase of training in the afternoon, then having something to eat, napping tyen training again.

It worked then but when I started work and tried to nap, I used to feel like crap in the evening training session

[anaconda]

nice info, but not exactly groundbreaking is it?

I mean "taking a nap after not sleeping enough makes you more alert and you function better." People get paid to study this stuff?

Can someone pay me to test out if sleep deprivation causes a decline in performance?

[solkanar]

Naps can help people out during the day but for most people it will make it harder to sleep at night.

[MikeMartial]

Originally Posted by Mr Bosco

Yeah right. Like I have a job where I can take a nap. That is realistic.

Not everyone on Sherdog is a teenager or in College/University with loads of free time. Most people like myself have full tiem jobs. I start at 8:30 am and finish at 5:30pm - 6:00pm.

From work I go straight to training then home. If I'm really tired I have a day off. Common sense.

Yeah, and not all of us are teenagers. Some of us are shiftworkers. And I had less time to sleep in college than I do now, and was far more sleep deprived.

[Revok]

I'm not a morning person, so on workdays I get maybe 6 hours sleep tops. I find the best nap time for me is 15 or 30 minutes at around 7pm, after which I'm feeling great and ready to go. If my body's not up to it, I wake up at 10pm and know it was never meant to be.