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In preschool programs it is recognized that children need an afternoon nap. Now John Medina tells us that maybe the adults should be napping as well. In his book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008), Medina indicates that all of us to some extent are impacted by and afternoon 'nap zone'...

"... a period in time in the mid-afternoon when we experience transient sleepiness. It can be nearly impossible to get anything done during this period, and if you attempt to push through, which is what most of us do, you can spend much of your afternoon fighting a gnawing tiredness. It's a fight because the brain really wants to take a nap and doesn't care what its owner is doing."

Medina goes on to cite research evidence on the importance of nap times for adults:

• more traffic accidents occur in the mid-afternoon than any other time of the day;
• a NASA study showed that a 26-minute nap improved a pilot's performance by 34%;
• another study showed that a 45-minute nap produced a similar boost in cognitive performance lasting as long as six hours.

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Four Exchange articles on "Applying Brain Research" appear in the Beginnings Workshops Book, Curriculum: Brain Research, Math, Science. The book also includes articles on math, science, and technology.

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