PowerNap (recording)

PowerNap is a patented audio recording that claims to induce a three-hour sleep cycle in a time span of twenty minutes. The recording was invented by Jonathan Husni in 2004, who was looking for a way for the employees of his Information Technology firm to gain sleep they lost by working late hours.

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How it Works

PowerNap is said to work by using inaudible sound frequencies combined with white noise, sounding like light rain, as a carrier wave. The listener's brain syncs with the frequencies after about a minute. The recording then sends the listener through periods of deep and REM Sleep cycles, only to wake him/her up after the twenty-minute recording is over. Dreaming during the recording is normal.

Studies on the Recording

To date, few, if any, clinical studies have been done on PowerNap. However, monitoring of EEG activity has been performed while subjects were listening to the recording. The monitoring suggested that Theta sleep waves were decreased, Alpha wave activity was somewhat increased, and Delta waves were smoothened. It also suggested that brain wave activity in both Cerebral hemispheres was balanced, calming and relaxing the user.

Variations of the Recording

To date, four variations of the PowerNap recording have been released to the public, three of the four on CD. The other, the NapMachine, was released on a PlayAway Digital audio player. The variations are:

• The original PowerNap recording is twenty minutes long, putting the listener to sleep for the time period, and then waking he/she up at the end.

• PowerNap "E", Extended Edition, is a forty-minute variation of the original recording.

• PowerNap Dive is a variation which is over seventy minutes long. This version, however, takes the listener into a deep sleep, and then fades out, leaving the listener in the deep sleep.

• The PowerNap NapMachine is the newest product in the PowerNap line. It is an updated version of the original PowerNap CD, but released on a PlayAway digital audio player for portability. It starts with a voice giving a brief instruction of how to use it, and ends with songbirds to wake the listener up if he/she is not already awake from the end of the recording.

Sources

Brett, Regina. "Why We Should All Sleep on the Job." The Plain Dealer 28 Oct. 2007, Sunday ed., sec. B: 1.

Soder, Chuck. "Hey, Brain -- Your 20-Minute Nap is Up." Crain's Cleveland Business 1 Oct. 2007.

"PowerNap." 29 Oct. 2007 .

"The Most Innovative Ways to Nap." AOL Money & Finance. Fast Company. 29 Oct. 2007 .