Saturday, March 08, 2014

Excuse me for a few minutes; I'm going to take a nap.


Sadly, you probably can’t do this at your office. The Ostrich Pillow is designed for napping in atypical locations. (Studio Banana Things)

From an article by by Matt McFarland in the Washington Post.
The average American worker spends $1,092 a year on coffee. We need that caffeine burst to stay alert. But there are tradeoffs, which professor Sara C. Mednick, a sleep expert, points out:

While it appears caffeine can keep you awake when sleep deprived, complex cognitive processes do not fare well on this drug. A study compared caffeine with napping and placebo conditions on three memory domains: visual, motor and verbal. On caffeine, verbal and motor skills decreased, whereas napping enhanced performance across all three tasks. Furthermore, a study of caffeine withdrawal showed that the immediate enhancements seen after caffeine abstinence completely disappear with regular use. It appears the perceived benefits of caffeine may be more related to release from withdrawal symptoms rather than actual performance enhancement.

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