In my recent post on neuroscience, sleep and creativity, I introduced the fascinating research on sleep by Matthew Walker and his colleagues at Berkeley.  We’ve known that exercise, specifically running, nutrition and novel experiences all enhance our smarts.  We’re also learning that sleep consolidates memories that have been created.  Now Walker comes along and recommends “power napping,” a practice I really love when I can get it. But for those who work at home, a nap just might be possible unless you’re balancing a two-year-old on your knee.  I’ve learned that when I’m not out on a consulting gig, my most effective work schedule is constructed around 2 to 3 hour sessions, usually starting at 6:30 am.  That includes a coffee break, and an afternoon nap.  We have several hours of help for my wife, but I plan and fix the dinner, enlisting my wife’s help on salads and table settings.  (My wife’s dementia doesn’t mix with the stove).  I usually hit the study again from 9:30 until 11 or so.  That can vary from eight to ten hours, and it works for me.But I’ve been curious about why my napping in the middle of that weird structure refreshes both body and brain.  Now I know.  Building upon earlier research like that in my previous blog, Walker was especially interested in episodic memory which relates to specific events, people and times.  Understanding that episodic memories deteroriate with time, his team wanted to find out whether sleep restores the brain’s capacity for efficient learning.  Once again, the team asked a group of people to take part in two learning sessions, one at noon and one at 6PM.  After the first session, members of the group were broken into two teams: nap or no-nap.  Along the way, they found that the ideal nap is about 90 to 100 minutes.  That’s a long nap in my book.  My work ethic usually kicks in and wakes me up after 45 minutes to an hour.  What they found was that those who stayed awake became worse at learning.  In contrast, those who napped actually improved their capacity to learn, doing better in the evening than they had at noon.  That’s clearly true for me.  I seem to get more done in the evening hours than any other time of the day.From the perspective of neuroscience, the findings suggest that sleep clears the short term memory, consolidates itself into the long term memory, and makes way for new learning.  If you work at home, and the nest is still busy, that won’t work very well.  My values prevented evening work most of the time, but now that we are empty nesters, the information confirms my experience. The most important take-away is the clear announcement that you just can’t keep working away at something and be successful without naps/sleep.  The traditional managerial notion of working on tight timelines is just bunk. The economist has a delightful write-up of the research here.   
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