Take A "Coffee Nap" and Stay Alert All Day In Your Workplace

For those workers who get to the office really early because they want
to beat the early morning traffic this is a very good idea.

Most times you want to catch a little nap just before work begins so
you can feel more active, but have you tried a coffee nap?

Scientists have observed that taking a "coffee nap" will help to
maximise your brain's alertness and is more effective than taking a
nap or coffee alone.




How Do You Take a "Coffee nap"?

First, drink a cup of coffee as quickly as you can (tea and soda have
less caffeine than coffee).

Then immediately take a nap; the usual nap you would have taken anyway
just that you took a cup of coffee before.
So lay your head on the table or relax in your staff lounge and take a
20minute nap (even if just a half-sleep stage)




How Exactly Does The Coffee Nap Work?

After caffeine is absorbed through your small intestine and passes
into your bloodstream, it crosses into your brain.
There, it fits into receptors that are normally filled by a
similarly-shaped molecule, called adenosine.

Adenosine is a by-product of brain activity, and when it accumulates
at high enough levels, it plugs into these receptors and makes you
feel tired. If caffeine (which takes about 20minutes to reach the
brain) blocks the receptors, then adenosine is unable to do so.

So the caffeine competes with adenosine for these spots, filling some,
but not others.

Now when you sleep adenosine is cleared from the brain. If you nap for
longer than 15 or 20 minutes, your brain is more likely to enter
deeper stages of sleep that take some time to recover from. But
shorter naps generally don't lead to this so-called "sleep inertia".

So if you nap for those 20 minutes, you'll reduce your levels of
adenosine just in time for the caffeine to kick in.

The caffeine will have less adenosine to compete with, and will
thereby be even more effective in making you alert.




This is one great move you can make to keep you alert throughout your
work period.
Try it and let's know how it goes.


(Photo-credit: http://www.wszhuxian.com/furniture/office-chair-you-can-sleep-in.html)

(Thanks to http://www.vox.com/science)