index abf938b..f682685 100644
@@ -6,11 +6,9 @@ visibility: public-edit
strategic napping as a performance tool, not a sign of weakness. plus breathwork alternatives when napping isn't possible.
-## the NASA nap
+## the science
-NASA studied cockpit crews on long-haul flights and found that a 26-minute nap improved alertness by 54% and performance by 34%. the protocol: plan for ~6 minutes to fall asleep, then 26 minutes of actual sleep. total time commitment: about 30 minutes.
-
-the key is the length. too short and you don't get enough benefit. too long and you drop into deep sleep (N3), which means waking up with sleep inertia — that groggy, disoriented feeling that's worse than the tiredness you started with.
+NASA found that a ~26-minute nap improved alertness by 54% and performance by 34%. the key is length — too short and you don't get enough benefit, too long and you drop into deep sleep and wake up with inertia worse than the tiredness you started with.
## nap timing
@@ -20,9 +18,7 @@ the key is the length. too short and you don't get enough benefit. too long and
## the caffeine nap
-drink coffee immediately before a 20-minute nap. caffeine takes ~20 minutes to kick in, so you wake up right as it hits. studies show this combo outperforms either caffeine or napping alone — 32% improvement in attention compared to caffeine alone.
-
-it sounds counterintuitive but the logic is clean: the nap clears some adenosine (the sleepiness molecule), and then the caffeine blocks the receptors so the remaining adenosine can't dock. double win.
+drink coffee immediately before a 20-minute nap. caffeine takes ~20 minutes to kick in, so you wake up right as it hits. the nap clears some adenosine, then the caffeine blocks the receptors so the remaining adenosine can't dock.
## when napping isn't possible
@@ -35,9 +31,9 @@ sometimes you can't nap — you're in a competition, a meeting marathon, or just
## recovery sleep
-after a bad night, recovery looks different than you'd think. you can't "make up" lost sleep hour-for-hour. what happens instead: the body prioritizes deep sleep on recovery nights, compressing more N3 into the first few cycles. so one good night after a bad one recovers more than you'd expect, but it doesn't fully restore what was lost.
+after a bad night, recovery looks different than you'd think. you can't "make up" lost sleep hour-for-hour. the body prioritizes deep sleep on recovery nights, compressing more N3 into the first few cycles. so one good night after a bad one recovers more than you'd expect, but it doesn't fully restore what was lost.
-the implication: don't try to sleep 12 hours to compensate. go to bed at your normal time, maybe 30-60 minutes early, and let the body's built-in recovery prioritization do its thing. see [[sleep-architecture]] for why this works.
+the implication: don't try to sleep 12 hours to compensate. go to bed at your normal time, maybe 30-60 minutes early, and let the body's built-in recovery prioritization do its thing.
## the cultural problem