Ah, the nap! One of the great pleasures in life, unless
it's executed poorly in which case you'll wake up groggy, feeling worse than you did
before the nap. In this video, I'll show you how to nap like
a pro. What's going on guys, Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com. The elusive glory of the power nap has evaded
fatigue students for centuries. Too frequently, you either wake up feeling
groggy and worse than you did before the nap or you oversleep and that 20 minute nap becomes
a two-hour nap. The struggle is real. We’ve all been there. As a recently minted medical doctor, I’m
unfortunately quite familiar with sleep deprivation and the art of napping. Let’s get straight to it. First, the key and understanding napping is
a familiarity with the science of the sleep cycle. The groggy feeling you get post-nap is called
sleep inertia, and it is linked to being woken during deeper stages of sleep. It goes beyond feeling drowsy, and also makes
you disoriented and limits your motor dexterity. For surgeons, that’s a big no-no. Power naps, however, exploit the lighter stages
of sleep, specifically stages 1 and 2. When you’re awake, your brain activity is
characterized by beta waves, which are high in frequency and low in amplitude, and more
desynchronous than other wave types. When relaxing but still awake, such as during
meditation, our brain waves slow down, increase in amplitude, and become more synchronous
– these are alpha waves. Stages 1 and 2 of sleep are chracterized by
theta waves, which are even slower in frequency and higher in amplitude compared to alpha
waves. In stage 2, theta waves are interspersed by
sleep spindles and K complexes. If you wake up during stages 1 or 2, you’re
much less likely to experience sleep inertia. Longer naps subject you to the delta waves
of stages 3 and 4. These are the slowest and highest amplitude
brain waves. This is the deepest part of sleep and is the
most difficult stage to wake from, leaving you drowsy and disoriented. In rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, the
brain exhibits higher activity, with alpha, beta, and desynchronous waves, similar to
a wakeful state. This is the state where dreaming occurs. While deeper stages of sleep and REM are considered
more restorative, getting into these states during naps does not fare well. Understanding the sleep cycle, it makes sense
why we need to keep power naps short. Napping for too long will subject you to deeper
stages of sleep, and therefore sleep inertia. I recommend experimenting with the duration
that best suits you. For me, I’ve found that 15 minutes is the
sweet spot, yours will also probably be similar. Start in the range between 10 and 20 minutes
and experiment from there. Twenty minutes is enough to get you into stage
2 sleep, which has been linked to boosts in memory and creativity. Crossing past 20 to 25 minutes is a very dangerous
territory. Not only are you more likely to wake up feeling
groggy, but you’re also much harder to wake, thus increasing the chances that your power
nap will become a 3 hour slumber. Now let’s go over 4 concerns you may have
and how to address each one. A very common concern with power napping is
that you don’t have enough time to fall asleep. To address this, I have two recommendations:
First, invest in some proper sleep gear. Seriously, I bought an excellent sleep mask
and ear plug combo for only $10 and my nap game level is now over 9000. And not just a regular sleep mask, but a contoured
one that keeps the material off of your eyes. It’s actually a total game changer. You can thank me later. Earplugs are also key. By addressing external factors like ambient
noise and light, you are recreating an ideal sleeping environment, and your brain will
be much more willing to relax into a power nap. Second, don’t worry about “falling asleep”. Just the act of getting into bed with your
sleep mask, ear plugs, and relaxing will slow your brain down. That’s enough to get several benefits, seriously. My favorite naps are the ones where I feel
like I haven’t even fallen asleep, and I get up a couple minutes before my alarm goes
off, feeling energized and ready to tackle the rest of the day. Over time, you will condition yourself to
associate the sleep mask and ear plugs with nap time, and you’ll find yourself falling
asleep faster than ever. At this point, you may have to tweak your
power nap duration at this point, as you may be falling into deeper sleep faster. I now personally go closer to 12 or 13 minutes
since the sleep mask and ear plugs are so effective. The next concern is over sleeping. I am all too familiar with this. When you’re sleep deprived, this is particularly
dangerous as you’re even more tempted to hit snooze. To address this, you must minimize the chances
of you actually hitting snooze. So, don’t sleep with your phone or alarm
right next to your bed. It’s too easy to hit silence and next thing
you know, it’s 3 hours later. Rather, place your alarm on the other end
of the room so that you have to get up to turn it off. Now while snoozing in the mornings isn't a
good habit, snoozing during a power nap is a much worse idea. My tendency to oversleep and hit snooze after
a rough few days in the hospital was cured by this simple trick. Concerned number three is that napping will
disrupt your sleep later that night. This is a completely valid concern, and is
best addressed by being mindful of the time that you take your nap. If you take your nap later in the day, the
amount of sleep debt required for natural sleep onset that night may be disrupted. For that reason, I recommend limiting your
naps to no later than 3PM. This will, however, depend on multiple factors,
including the particular time that you go to sleep. If you are ok with sleeping later at night,
then you can nap a little later into the day. If however, you intend to sleep early, then
you may want to stop napping even earlier than 3PM. I have found that when I’m postcall from
the hospital or in other periods of sleep deprivation, I can actually get away with
naps later in the day without much detrimental effect on my sleep later that night. This is because the overall sleep debt is
still quite significant. I do not recommend sleep deprivation as it
is not healthy but this is my experience. The last concern is "what if I still wake
up tired?" if you still aren't feeling as awake and alert as you would like, I have
two recommendations; first, try out coffee naps. I have mentioned them before in my other sleep
videos and they work wonders. The idea is simple, drink a cup of coffee
or take a caffeine pill and then start your power nap. By the time you wake up, the caffeine has
already been absorbed into your small intestine, enter the bloodstream circulated and begun
working its magic. More specifically, adenosine from consumed
ATP builds up in your brain over the course of the day, and is one of the factors inducing
fatigue. Caffeine competitively inhibits this molecule,
meaning it competes for the same receptors. When caffeine is blocking the adenosine receptor,
the adenosine molecules cannot carry out their action and you are more alert. For more on the science and tips on how to
drink coffee effectively, check out my caffeine consumption video. Second, critically examine your sleep at night. If you’re sleep deprived, it’s probably
due to being inefficient during the day, resulting in you not having enough time to sleep. If you’re getting enough sleep but still
feel fatigued, it could be a variety of things, but a great place to start is by improving
the quality of your sleep to feel more refreshed. Six hours of good quality sleep feels WAY
different than six hours of poor quality sleep. I go over how to do exactly that in my sleep
smarter video. Now, I've also placed links to my favorite
sleep hack items down in the description below. From medical school to plastic surgery residency,
I've experienced my fair share of sleep deprivation and as a result, I've grown obsessed with
hacking sleep and getting the most out of the limited hours that we have. If you want to learn more about sleep and
more specifically, actionable advice on how you can sleep more effectively, I've compiled
high yield information in my sleep playlist. Link is in the description below. Let me know down in the comments what your
experience of napping is. Do you normally wake up groggy? Have you tried shortening your naps? How about coffee naps, have you tried them
and do they work for you? Thank you all so much for watching. If you liked the video, make sure you press
that like button. Hit subscribe if you have not already and
I will see you guys in that next one.
