We’ve known for a long time that a short afternoon nap can make a major difference to our work performance, especially if we’re involved in mental work.

Now, a new book by Harvard University sleep expert Dr Sara Mednick, Take a Nap! Change Your Life, describes the simple process of taking a nap as a “lifesaving habit”. She claims that snoozers make fewer mistakes and have boosted brainpower. One of her experiments involved one group taking a nap, another group drinking a mug of coffee (200mg of caffeine), and a control group taking a placebo.

They were then given a series of tasks, including typing and spatial skill tests. The coffee drinkers performed much worse than the placebo takers, while the nappers performed best of all. So the common assumption that coffee will keep us going through the day has probably been fed to us by the coffee industry.

Dr Mednick, a psychologist and research scientist, has accumulated a lot of evidence that a simple siesta in the afternoon is the best medicine for a happier, healthier life. People who sleep for 30 minutes at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower chance of a heart attack, according to a lead researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health.

In another study, recently published in Nature Neuroscience journal, the good doctor put 30 well-rested people through the same set of tasks four times in the course of a day, starting at 9am through to 7pm.

Performance dropped by 50 percent in those who stayed awake all day. However, the volunteers who took an afternoon nap kept up their performance throughout the day.

NASA has also made a contribution. Tests conducted by them show that astronauts who took a brief snooze doubled their alertness even if they were not tired before the nap. They also increased their work productivity by at least 13 percent.

The ideal time to nap apparently is between 1pm and 3pm which enables the most restful kind of sleep pattern for boosting performance.

I suggest you hedge your bets and take a nap now.

Research has shown that playing video games sharpens vision. New studies done in Tel Aviv now indicate that playing specific types of computer games can sharpen your mind.

MindFit computer software was specifically designed to take advantage of the plasticity of the brain and using cognitive training, improve mental abilities such as short-term memory, auditory short term memory, location memory, spatial orientation, planning, speed of reaction and hand-eye coordination.

The studies conducted at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center of Tel- Aviv University in Israel, involved two groups of subjects age 50 and older who were assigned to spend 30 minutes, three times a week, playing either the MindFit software or sophisticated computer games.

All the participants benefited from playing the computer games but those using the MindFit software made greater gains in cognitive performance.

The research proves that seniors and boomers can significantly boost cognitive ability and preserve mental function through the use of cognitive training. Because those with lower baseline cognitive performance made greater gains than those with normal cognition, it could also prove to be a defense against age-related decline.

Every motorist knows the meaning of a red traffic light. Red is used to warn of danger or to mark wrong answers on tests. Researchers at the University of Rochester say that not only does the color red command drivers to stop their cars, the color red can impact test scores and performance.

In four experiments, the authors of the study found that if subjects even saw a hint of the color red before taking a test, it caused them to do poorly. The association of red with mistakes and failure is so ingrained that being shown the color red before a test diminished the subject’s ability to do well. Two more tests showed that red influences motivation.

The findings were published in an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The lead author, Andrew J. Elliot, is a professor of Psychology at the University of Rochester.

The article’s hypothesis is based on the idea that color can evoke motivation and have an effect without the subject being aware of it. “It leads people to do worse without their knowledge,” says Elliot, when it comes to academic achievement. In one of the six tests given, for example, people were allowed a choice of questions to answer. Most of them chose to answer the easiest question, a classic example of how to avoid failure.

University of Rochester