The US Army has a new secret weapon – napping. Can you use it too? In the military, the order of the day is often hurry up and wait, spending hours in unproductive expectation. You will know the drill if you have been in the services. Its smoke ‘em if you have ‘em whenever there is a 2-minute break, five minutes and its get a brew on, ten its knock up some hot scram. Beyond that, you take every opportunity to get your head down, just be prepared to move out at any moment. Every jack in the field knows that fatigue corrodes performance and quickly learns to ‘power sleep’, nodding off under any circumstance –a muddy ditch or propped up by your mate in the back of a 4-tonne truck.

The NHS recommends that to function properly the average person needs around 8 hours of good-quality sleep every night. But that doesn’t necessarily always fit within military operational parameters or those of everyday life. Consequently, a more pragmatic approach has evolved. Generations of squaddies have learned to ‘suck-it-up’ always looking for any opportunity to catch 40 winks.

As part of a new holistic approach to health in the ranks, the US Army’s overhaul of its physical training manual recognises for the first time that adequate sleep is necessary for optimal performance. It recommends that soldiers put in ‘sleep time’ whenever they can.

Rebranded as the FM 7-22 Holistic Health and Fitness manual, the US Army’s physical fitness training field manual no longer focuses on gruelling physical challenges like forced marches in full battle gear and pull-ups [1]. Now it provides guidance on setting goals, visualizing success, ‘spiritual readiness’ and, yes, the art of the napping.

The updated manual advises soldiers to use short, infrequent naps to restore wakefulness and maintain optimal performance. It states that “when routinely available sleep time is difficult to predict, soldiers should take the longest nap possible as frequently as time is available.” I can only imagine my ex-colleagues would say “No s*#t Sherlock!” It is the first update to the manual in almost a decade, it reflects growing scientific evidence that peak physical performance involves more than physical fitness and endurance. The introduction tells readers, “The goal of the Holistic Health and Fitness System is to build physical lethality and mental toughness to win quickly and return home healthy.”

Even if you haven’t witnessed the effects of sleep exhaustion for yourself, it isn’t difficult to imagine just how chronic sleep deprivation during missions can cripple decision-making and lead to catastrophe. Reports of US Army deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, where commanders often failed to prioritize sleep, found that changing schedules, long duty shifts and overnight missions led to chronic fatigue. As with many young men, deprivation fuelled a voracious dependency on caffeinated energy drinks, which left many troops feeling wired.

Soldiers who guzzled energy drinks demonstrated higher levels of mental health issues, making It harder for them to deal with mission stresses.

If the US military, an organisation infamous for its inflexibility, now feels that napping is a good way of maintaining peak performance should we also be looking to employing it in our daily routines? Could we learn something valuable from the ancient squaddie wisdom that is particularly applicable to these difficult times? Pandemic and lockdown-fever has seen many spending more time at their (home) desks while increasingly reporting difficulty sleeping and an inability to concentrate on their work. One in three people in the UK report suffering from disturbed sleep.

Traditionally viewed as monophasic sleepers, humans are rare among mammals, 85% of our animal cousins (as well as young children and the elderly) are polyphasic sleepers. In fact, napping is a cross cultural phenomenon which, in reality, occurs across our lifespana. People vary widely in the frequency with which they nap as do the improvements in alertness and wellbeing experienced [2]. Some believe that the length of your nap and the type of sleep you get help determine the brain-boosting benefits. The 20-minute power nap - sometimes called the Stage 2 nap - is apparently good for improving alertness and motor learning skills like typing and playing the piano. Research suggests that a nap of more than 20 minutes helps boost memory and enhances creativity. Slow-wave sleep - napping for approximately 30 to 60 minutes - is (apparently) good for decision-making skills, such as memorizing vocabulary or recalling directions. Achieving rapid eye movement or REM sleep, usually 60 to 90 minutes of napping, plays a key role in making new connections in the brain and solving creative problems.

There was a time when napping during work hours was frowned upon. Accidently slip into the arms of Morpheus at your desk and you could find yourself labelled as a lazy degenerate with a poor work ethic. In these more enlightened times employers are increasingly recognizing the benefits of power naps as an effective means of stimulating both attention and performance.

Some are even taking this into consideration when planning office layouts and work schedules. Even if yours isn’t one of the more forward-thinking employers, with more of us currently working from home we have more opportunity to take matters into our own hands without too much fear of judgement. However, stuck at your post there's little chance of popping upstairs for a hot bath, though you can always light a scented candle. To facilitate sleep, FM 7-22 notes to avoid video games, texting and other screen activity, recommending a period of winding down by “listening to soothing music or reading”. It also says to avoid alcohol before sleep – probably best if you are meant to be working.

Numerous self-help books underline how there is no magic way of napping, you have to find what works for you. Experts suggest that the most important factor when it comes to finding sleep is quieting your mind followed by a relaxed body – oddly, my sleep routine involves imagining that I am being chased by hordes of rabid zombies. The US Army is said to advocate a technique that can help anyone fall asleep in just 2 minutes, even in circumstances that are less than optimal such as in peri-conflict arenas (battlefields).

In brief: Relax the muscles in your face, including tongue, jaw and the muscles around the eyes. Drop your shoulders as far down as they’ll go, followed by your upper and lower arm, one side at a time.

Breathe out, relaxing your chest followed by your legs, starting from the thighs and working down Clear your mind for about 10 seconds before concentrating on a relaxation scenario that works for you:

1. a) Lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you;
2. b) Resting in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room;
3. c) Lounging on a warm beach with waves gently lapping the shore;

or

1. d) Being chased by rabid zombies (specifically for me).

After some practice the technique is believed to work for almost anyone. A final word of warning, the benefits of napping can be lost if you sleep for too long, potentially impacting on your normal evening sleep routine. Longer naps or being woken unnaturally can leave you feeling weary with a sleep-fogged brain. A useful tip is to drink a cup of coffee just before you nap. This may seem somewhat contradictory but trust this wily old pharmacologist. Caffeine doesn’t kick in straight away. It takes between 20 and 45 minutes to start to do its job. Let yourself be gently lifted chemically from your slumber – it really works (it’s that or the bladder pressure).

If you are already a practiced napper you can be certain that you’re in illustrious company. Einstein, Winston Churchill, JFK, Margert Thatcher and even Leonardo da Vinci were all (allegedly) practitioners of the afternoon brain shut down. In the words of FN 7-22, “Inadequate sleep weakens soldier performance and jeopardises the mission.”

References

1. United States Government, US Army. Field Manual: FM 7-22 Holistic Health and Fitness. Oct 2020
2. Milner C, Cote KA. Benefits of napping in healthy adults: impact of nap length, time of day, age, and experience with napping. Journal of Sleep Research 2009; 18: 272-281.