Read this only if you are sleep deprived

Tim Ferris (the best selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich )in his blog has gone to great lengths in explaining his unorthodox methods of hacking sleep. The commentators on his blog (ranging from the testers to the doctors to everyone in between) have only

condoned his ideas, especially the one which tell you to

have coffee just before your siesta.

Now this should sound odd to you. Coffee? To sleep? You have your caffeine fix  to stay awake, not to fall asleep. Nat Geo told us that Sufis of Islam invented coffee to stay awake. That is the purpose of coffee. To open them eyes now. So how is coffee helping people fall asleep?

You can be forgiven for thinking that some author of a best selling book in the United States could be just saying it, now what would he know about hacking sleep!? Coffee and then sleep, aah phooey! (I never thought I’d use this word – ever!).

But perhaps then you can also be forgiven to not take note of a story covered by Newsweek recently, titled “Seven Secret of a Great Nap”. The article quotes a sleep doctor who, not surprisingly, condones this coffee-and-sleep routine. And I quote,

A 2003 Japanese study found that you can alleviate sleepiness by combining a short snooze with coffee. Sound counterintuitive? Here’s how it works: caffeine takes about 20 minutes to a half-hour to kick in, just enough time for you to nap. That way, if you’ve had a coffee-primed nap, the benefits are twofold: you’ve rested and you’re ready to go when you wake. The British Transportation Department even provides drivers with the following recommendation to combat driver fatigue: “Stop, drink two cups of coffee or a highly caffeinated drink, then take a short nap.” Think of a nap as a free extra shot in your latte

The other six ’secrets’ presented by Newsweek may not be a new thing for people who are in the habit of controling their sleep at will, rather than the other way around. I am not one of those people, and if you are even half as sleep deprived as me, you will find the tips exceptionally beneficial.

Newsweek has seven steps, Tim Ferris’ blog post is titled “5 steps to hacking your sleep“. Regardless of the number of steps, the information presented in these two articles are definitely helpful for anyone looking to maximize one’s life.

Hacking (mastering, controlling) sleep is essential, for a very simple reason: it is a very integral part of your life, and if you do not understand this most basic of human traits, you stand a much lesser chance of controlling it, hence letting it control you. Hack away, friends, hack away.

Good luck and God bless