Navy SEAL Nap

Thank you for your service, you’ve earned a nap and then some!

I thought Memorial Day would be the right time to discuss the napping technique that Jocko Willink, author and retired Navy SEAL (did you know that SEAL stands for Sea, Air, and Land?) Team 3 member, discusses in Episode #56 of Dr. Peter Attia’s podcast (just after 40:19, according to Dr. Attia’s website).

Dr. Attia, who studied at Stanford and John’s Hopkins,¹² studies longevity and interviewed Willink over the course of two episodes in 2019; and in the second, Willink discusses his napping technique.

Weirdly (or maybe not?), I couldn’t find a pic of Willink sleeping. Perhaps not coincidentally, I found it easy to find pix of him crossing his arms and/or scowling.

Willink’s simple (but far from basic) technique has just two requirements:³

1. Elevate your feet above your heart

2. Set an alarm for eight minutes (sometimes 10 or 12)

Post-nap, Willink says:

I feel like Superman. I feel like I just slept for eight hours.

I must try this and will report back — please feel free to do the same!

In the meantime, thank you for your service to all current and former members of the US armed services.

1. I decided to take a page out of

Matt Levine

’s book (not sure if that’s actually his Substack, but this is def some info re him) and use footnotes. I also decided that words included in a footnote don’t count towards the 250-word cap we’ve put on a given article. Don’t hate the player, hate the game — and don’t rail against the rules, work within them to achieve maximal impact!

2. I’m less interested in where people went to a given school, than why they went there. At the same time, I’m only 25% kidding when I say lawyers (full disclosure: I’m a recovering lawyer, in recovery almost 13 years at this point) should be called “doctor” if PhDs can be.

3. Full disclosure: I haven’t listened to this episode and am relying on online summaries, as Willink himself hasn’t written about this, far as I can tell.