Power napping, stress management, and jet lag

At the time of this writing I had arrived in Europe a few days prior. I am labeling this post “my experience”, because it is mostly based on my own practice with power napping - which is similar to meditation. Surprisingly, jet lag had been only very minor this time for me. The time difference between most of Europe and Texas is about 8 hours, which makes adaptation very difficult, especially coming over to Europe. In spite of that, I slept during much of my first night here. The same happened in the following nights, even though I can feel that my body is still not fully adapted to the new time zone.

(Source: Squidoo.com)

How come? I am all but sure that this is a direct result of my recent experience with power napping.

I have been practicing power napping for several months now. Usually in the middle of the afternoon, between 3 and 4 pm, I lie down for about 15 minutes in a sleeping position on a yoga mat. I use a pillow for the head. I close my eyes and try to clear my mind of all thoughts, focusing on my breathing, as in meditation. When I feel like I am about to enter deep sleep, I get up. This usually happens 15 minutes after I lie down. The sign that I am about to enter deep sleep is having incoherent thoughts, like in dreaming. Often I have muscle jerks, called hypnic jerks, which are perfectly normal. Hypnic jerks are also a sign that it is time for me to get up.

After getting up I tend to feel very refreshed and relaxed. My ability to do intellectual work is also significantly improved. If I make the mistake of going further, and actually entering a deep sleep stage, I get up feeling very groggy and sleepy. So the power nap has to end at around 15 minutes for me. For several people I know, this time ranges from 10 to 20 minutes. It seems that once one enters a deep sleep phase, it is better to then sleep for at least a few hours.

Power napping is not as easy as it sounds. If one cannot enter a state of meditation at the beginning, the onset of sleep does not happen. You have to be able to clear your mind of thoughts. Focusing on your breathing helps. Interestingly, once you become experienced at power napping, you can often induce actual sleep in almost any situation – e.g., on a flight or when you arrive in another country. That is what happened with me during this trip. Even though I had been waking up at night since I arrived in Europe, I would manage to go right back to sleep. Previously, in other trips to Europe, I would be unable to go back to sleep after I woke up in the middle of the night.