In Blog #40 I wrote about ‘How to Powernap’ to give yourself that 3-hr performance boost (without affecting your nighttime sleep).

But napping is not the only way to power through your afternoon.

And some people don’t like to nap.

They feel like they’re wasting time.

Or that they might accidently sleep for longer than intended (have you done this on the first couple of afternoons on an international holiday?).

But others don’t want to be seen napping (eg, at work).

So are there alternative ways to 'Biohack’ your afternoon dip without it affecting your evening sleep?

+Caffeine?

In the same year that Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ Album beat the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Jeff Buckley, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam (Rolling Stone, 1994), two researchers joined at the hip were investigating the alerting effects of caffeine.

But not just caffeine. They added napping.

These days, the term ‘caffeine nap’ or ‘coffee nap’ is more commonplace, but it didn’t appear in the scientific literature as a term until the year Vampire Weekend’s “Modern Vampires of the City” was named best album of the year (Rolling Stone, 2013).

The thing is, after their nap, Bonnet and Arand were giving their study participants 200 mg of caffeine - that’s two espressos … at 1:30 AM.

And that was after a 4-hour nap opportunity.

You see - the first Coffee Nap studies were investigating the power of caffeine and/or napping on keeping people awake overnight.

Why?

Because some of us have to stay awake overnight to work - like petrol station attendants, pilots, emergency doctors and nurses, security officers, taxi drivers, and sleep researchers (to name a few).

Not only is a strong dose of caffeine effective at keeping people awake overnight, but it’s just as effective as a very long nap.

But if you have a very-long nap first - followed by a damn strong coffee - and that’s even more effective at keeping you awake overnight (Schweitzer et al., 2005).

That’s great for shiftworkers, but what about those 9-to-5ers?

Well, a mug of coffee (150 mg) is just as effective as a power nap in the arvo (afternoon) - good news for drowsy drivers (Horne, 1996)!

But this British study didn’t combine the caffeine and the nap.

Leave that to the Japanese - who found the Coffee Nap (btw, they didn’t call it that..) to be the most effective technique for the 9-to-5ers (Hayashi et al. 2003).

So to wrap this section up:

• Caffeine can help power through your afternoon, and not affect your nighttime sleep (unless you consume it in the late afternoon/evening - we cover this in our new Online Course - and yes, that’s the only plug today)

• A Power Nap can help power through your afternoon, and not affect your nighttime sleep

• Unless a study pops up, we don’t know if a Coffee Nap affects nighttime sleep

So perhaps find out if the Coffee Nap works for you?

+Bright Light

I’ve already explained in our Blue Screenlight series of blogs that the blue light emitted from screens in the hour before bed is not alerting enough to make it difficult to fall asleep.

But can bright light help you power through your arvo?

Well it seems that bright light can be just as effective as caffeine to help shiftworkers’ alertness overnight - and the combination of the two is even better (Wright Jnr. et al., 2003).

The difference here is that the bright light used in this study was 2,000 lux - a lot brighter than the 80 or so lux from a bright screen.

2,000 lux is usually easy to achieve in the afternoon - just go outside. Even on a cloudy day you’ll get around 20,000 lux.

But then again, these are unusual times (ie, self-isolation), and getting even 2,000 lux inside can be pretty damn hard.

Just Add Water?

Remember that Japanese study that tested the Coffee Nap in the arvo? Well, they also tested washing your face.

Well it didn’t really work.

Then again, the temperature of the water was only 25 degrees Celsius.

I figure the Scandinavians would have something to say about this …

Sleep Extension?

We’ve all heard how important it is to get enough sleep, so it makes sense that possibly the best method to power your afternoon is to go to bed early the night before so you get enough sleep.

Not so.

Getting a bit more sleep by going to bed early came in behind both a Cup of Joe (coffee) or having a Kip (power nap; Horne et al., 2008)

Conclusion? You just need to get enough sleep - not a lot.

Can You Biohack Your Afternoon Performance?

If by Biohack we mean do some quick techniques to biologically alter your alertness and performance, then Yes. It appears you can.

But maybe it’s not just a Coffee Nap, but a Lightning Coffee Nap (ie, just add bright light instead of water).

Then again, this is all hypothetical.

A good scientist collects data. And repeats the experiment.

You know I’m talking to you, right?

• Prof Michael Gradisar.

p.s. Are you kidding Rolling Stone? Dookie?