Mark Ehrman - Take a Nap! Change Your Life.

The Scientific Plan
To Make You Smarter, Healthier, More Productive

Sara C. Mednick, Ph.D.
with Mark Ehrman

Workman Publishing New York

Copyright 2006 by Sara C. Mednick and Mark Ehrman

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

eISBN: 9780761153771

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To our loving fathersand the greatest of nappersSarnoff A. Mednick and (the late) Alexander Ehrman.

The authors acknowledge the scientists whose work provided the platform upon which this book now stands: in particular, Power Sleep author Dr. James B. Maas, who coined the term power nap, Dr. David F. Dinges, who edited the first academic book on napping and William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D., the father of sleep medicine, whose groundbreaking research imbued the scientific study of sleep with the respect and attention it enjoys today. Were also indebted to the work of the National Sleep Foundation and its tireless campaign to raise public awareness of the role of sleep in our overall health.

We furthermore want to thank everyone who lent a hand, an ear, an idea or a story in the making of this book, from conception to completion, particularly all the nappers and would-be nappers who shared pieces of their lives with us. Thanks also to everyone at PFD, especially our agent Zo Pagnamenta, and to Peter Whybrow for steering us in her direction. And finally, this book would never have been possible without the positively inspiring staff at WorkmanPaul Hanson, Peter Workman, Lynn Strong and Jen Pare, and especially our indefatigable editor, Susan Bolotin. You can all take a well-deserved nap.

Personally, I am grateful to the mentors who have encouraged me to place equal value on insight and intelligence and always to choose the path that leads to the greatest joy. In particular, I thank my mom and dad, Birgitte and Sarnoff Mednick, for their unconditional love and constant support; my brother, Thor, for never ceasing to inspire me; my sisters, Amy and Lisa, and their families for bringing music, poetry and beautiful babies to us all. Thanks to Bob Stickgold and Ken Nakayama and everyone at the Harvard Vision Lab and Sleep Lab for helping me learn to nap; Sean Drummond and Geoffrey Boynton and everyone at the Salk Institute and UCSD, for cocreating my new home in San Diego; and the National Institutes of Health, which generously supported my nap research over the years. Thanks to Bard College and my fellow die-hard individualists. To the best friends a person could wish for: Amriti, Roman, Meryl, Lilah, Karen, Hany, S.D.V., Kamala, Peter, Georgina, Laura, Colleen and Maureen, Mahshad and Constantine, and my beloved William. Finally, thank you, Mark Ehrman, for your elegant prose and friendship.

S.M.

My own thanks goes out to my late father, Alexander, for always encouraging me to pursue writing even if he did believe that law school was the safer bet, and to my mother, Eva Deutsch, for all the love and support. A long-overdue appreciation to Sarah Jane Garretson for the doors you opened and for being my ally, confidante, counselor and comrade for all those years, and to my friends, T-Rik, John, Hunter, Jim and Theresa, Safini and Victor, Peggy, Lynn, Patricia, Burcu and Tulsa, who helped me through many less-than-heroic moments. Thanks to Charles Rappleye for the business lessons, Walter Gordon for the legal advice and the many editors over the years whove nurtured my career and taught me about the craft and business of writingparticularly Steve Randall (thanks for the lunches, too), Pamm Higgins, Mary Melton, Erik Torkells and Linda Friedman. Thanks to Sarnoff and Birgitte for periodically allowing your spectacular Hollywood Hills home (Club Mednick) to be turned into a book-writing camp and, finally, to Sara for going on this journey with me.

M.E.

My Journey from Skeptic to Nap Advocate

Its 3 P.M. Wednesday. The phone is ringing. A student has dropped off a sheaf of printouts and expects me to make sense of them. Im testing an experimental subject and the computer thats scoring the results has just crashed. In an hour, Im scheduled to give a presentation of my research. What to do? After putting out the immediate fires, I have half an hour to spare. So I reach for my secret weapon. It never lets me down.

At 4 P.M., I enter the auditorium at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, stand before my colleagues and explain my latest scientific findings on the benefits of napping. The presentation goes without a hitch. When Im done, someone asks the question I get every single time I give this kind of talk.

Do you nap? he asks.

And I give my stock answer: Of course I do. Its my secret weapon.

Five years ago, I never imagined that a healthy solution to facing lifes multiple challenges could be as simple and attainable as a short nap. Faced with a challenge, Id respond with another shot of espresso, splash some cold water on my face and drag myself through the rest of my day. If someone had told me that I would go on to become a nap expertand a staunch advocate of the restorative powers of daytime restI would probably have advised psychological counseling.

But life-changing lessons come in all forms. In my case, the catalyst was a ratty old couch that arrived at my lab in Harvard Universitys Department of Psychology, where I was a graduate student. Its owner was about to throw it away (for good reason, by the looks of it), but Jay Edelman, one of the research associates, wanted something for visitors to sit on. I needled him endlessly as a trio of grad students carried that ugly brown couch into his office on the seventh floor of William James Hall. It probably looked fine the day it came home from the store, but after 20 years of duty its wool upholstery was pilling and cotton stuffing was curling out everywhere. Little did I suspect that an old castaway couch would give me an education I couldnt get in any Ivy League lecture hall.

My preschool teachers can vouch for the fact that I was never much of a napper. Back then, teasing the boys and disrupting my fellow students rest seemed a much more interesting way to spend nap time. And until my encounter with that couch, not much had changed. But my father, also a research psychologist, swore by napping, and he wasnt the only accomplished person I respected who vouched for all the wonderful benefits a nap can bring. Well, thats just their opinion, I thought. Wheres the proof? My attitude was: Time spent napping is time taken away from getting things done.

Of course, not all my great teachers were inanimate or worn out at the seams. During my second year at Harvard, I walked into a lecture by Dr. Robert Stickgold, an associate professor of psychiatry. At that point, I had already burned through several possible thesis topics, tossing them all aside. I wanted to study something that would have a beneficial impact on a large segment of society, and investigating visual memory in schizophrenic patientsfascinating as that might bedidnt fit the bill. But it was immediately apparent that Dr. Stickgolds work was different.