Today’s Dadly Daily Declaration comes from Chapter 9 (titled The Binaural Power Nam) of Aubrey Marcus‘ book, Own The Day, Own Your Life. This chapter focuses on napping. Marcus writes, “When the natural post-lunch lull comes rolling in, the best thing you can do is listen to your body. Instead of fighting it go with it.”
Marcus posits that there is no shame in going with the flow and taking a nap. As evidence, he lists famous nappers who were also famously productive, like Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Napoleon, Einstein, and Thomas Edison. Further, science illustrates the restorative effects of napping:
- Naps have been show to consistently outperform high doses of caffeine for cognitive tasks and even motor performance
- Naps have been show to improve logical reasoning, reaction time, and immune function
- Naps have been shown to double levels of alertness
- Naps have been shown to improve afternoon energy levels and concentration moreso than coffee and more nighttime sleep
Marcus prescribes 5 keys to conquer your post-lunch nap:
- Pick a time in the early afternoon
- Lock and load a theta waves binaural beats track
- Find a cool, quote place
- Set your alarm for 30 minutes
- Hit play on the binaural beats track and close your eyes
All of this leads to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration, which is:
Sleeping is not for lazy people, it is for productive people. Shrug off what American culture tells you about napping, and look at the actual science. When the Navy SEALs are going through BUD/S training, they are given very short recovery periods, not long enough to properly sleep. This is not dissimilar to what they might find in the battlefield. Maybe you can’t fully go to sleep when you are in a dangerous position. But you can recover your mind, so that you can be sharp. Being able to modulate and control your brainwave patterns is crucial to a high-functioning, ass-kicking life. Life is push, pull. Gather, go. Exert, recover. So rest, Palawan, the Force needs you at 100 percent.
