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Are Naps Good for You?

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#11

Post by jonahbenton »

politelemon wrote: post #2

Our bodies are pretty good at telling us what it needs. Drink when you're thirsty and nap when you're drowsy. The problem we find, which elicits articles like this, is that our 'work environment' is not conducive to adhoc relaxation.

I am an old man and have learned some things about myself. I was an athlete when younger and am quite good at listening to what my various parts say when it comes to injuries or various kinds of use. Others in my age group like my wife who spent less time doing athletic work when younger are lacking this signal and get injured more often.

However I also worked quite a lot when younger and do not at all hear my body say it is tired or thirsty. Getting an Oura ring has been tremendously helpful, having a signal in terms of tiredness and proper sleep quantity. I take naps now when my "readiness" is low.

I have no signal when it comes to thirst, but can report that getting a fancy ice machine and a fancy seltzer maker in the last few years to make it fun to stay hydrated has been a total life changer. I now drink 3-4 quarts of water a day and I notice on the other side of that all kinds of improvements. But I do not recognize their absenses if I don't follow the drinking regemin. I mean, I do a little bit now, but not really.

Upshot: bodies are probably equally good at generating signal but every brain has different training and tuning as to which signals it picks up, and which ones it ignores.

Cheers.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#12

Post by coldtea »

unmole wrote: post #3
politelemon wrote: post #2

Our bodies are pretty good at telling us what it needs. Drink when you're thirsty and nap when you're drowsy. The problem we find, which elicits articles like this, is that our 'work environment' is not conducive to adhoc relaxation.

~75% of adults in the US are overweight. ~20% have a sleep disorder.

That's because modern life goes against our evolutionary instict.

They weren't developed for when a several trillion dollar industry is hell-bent on selling addictive, over-processed, sodium, sugar, corn syrup etc fulled food-stuff crap, and showings as 100s of ads throughout a signle day. Not for spending our whole days in chairs, staring at a screen, and then relaxing by staring at more screens.

A much much smaller percentage share of adults in the US were overweight before the 80s and 70s.

I'd venture a guess a much smaller share had a sleep disorder before TV, long car commutes, and artificial lights too.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#13

Post by coldtea »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #7
unmole wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~75% of adults in the US are overweight. ~20% have a sleep disorder.

So are ~53% of adults in the EU. And there are more obese kids than before in the EU too: knowing that there's an insane statistic saying something like 93% of obese kids shall stay obese their entire life, that 53% in the EU is only ever gonna go up (unless there's serious food shortage due to a war or climate event).

>knowing that there's an insane statistic saying something like 93% of obese kids shall stay obese their entire life

How is that statistic insane? People rarely shed weight just like that, when they do it takes concentrated effort and persistence. And even if you do, it's dead easy to get it back on in like a few months...

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#14

Post by eska »

politelemon wrote: post #2

Our bodies are pretty good at telling us what it needs. Drink when you're thirsty and nap when you're drowsy. The problem we find, which elicits articles like this, is that our 'work environment' is not conducive to adhoc relaxation.

According to multiple studies 50-75% of adults in first world countries don’t drink enough water.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#15

Post by tayo42 »

huijzer wrote: post #8
politelemon wrote: post #2

Our bodies are pretty good at telling us what it needs. Drink when you're thirsty and nap when you're drowsy. The problem we find, which elicits articles like this, is that our 'work environment' is not conducive to adhoc relaxation.

Counterexamples: body tells you to eat more when stressed or depressed. A bit of stress is healthy for the body. Your body doesn’t really tell you to go to the gym.

> Your body doesn’t really tell you to go to the gym.

I think there are, when I was lifting heavy my muscles would start to have a softer feeling to them if i was a way for a bit. Away from exercise now, Ill start to feel a little bloated and fat. maybe feeling fat is in my head.

If im sedentary for long ill have a feeling like I should get up and do something. hard to explain what it is thinking about it now.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#16

Post by simple10 »

Rather than naps, I can personally recommend yoga nidra, AKA non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) meditation. There's no effort involved. You just lie down and listen to an audio track. Lots of tracks available on YouTube and Spotify. With yoga nidra, you stay awake and get just as recharged from a good nap but without the risk of waking up groggy. It's a game changer.

If you're interested in the science behind it, Andrew Huberman often talks about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rSOn0PurVc

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#17

Post by totallywrong »

huijzer wrote: post #8
politelemon wrote: post #2

Our bodies are pretty good at telling us what it needs. Drink when you're thirsty and nap when you're drowsy. The problem we find, which elicits articles like this, is that our 'work environment' is not conducive to adhoc relaxation.

Counterexamples: body tells you to eat more when stressed or depressed. A bit of stress is healthy for the body. Your body doesn’t really tell you to go to the gym.

> Your body doesn’t really tell you to go to the gym.

Oh it does. I feel like crap (including mentally) if I don't go for a few days.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#18

Post by simple10 »

simple10 wrote: post #16

Rather than naps, I can personally recommend yoga nidra, AKA non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) meditation. There's no effort involved. You just lie down and listen to an audio track. Lots of tracks available on YouTube and Spotify. With yoga nidra, you stay awake and get just as recharged from a good nap but without the risk of waking up groggy. It's a game changer. If you're interested in the science behind it, Andrew Hube…

This is my favorite yoga nidra track on spotify (30 min):

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LXBzjxhdJDFiW2CWINGb3

And here's a shorter one (10 min) from Andrew Huberman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKGrmY8OSHM

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#19

Post by wnolens »

simple10 wrote: post #16

Rather than naps, I can personally recommend yoga nidra, AKA non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) meditation. There's no effort involved. You just lie down and listen to an audio track. Lots of tracks available on YouTube and Spotify. With yoga nidra, you stay awake and get just as recharged from a good nap but without the risk of waking up groggy. It's a game changer. If you're interested in the science behind it, Andrew Hube…

> With yoga nidra, you stay awake

Huh I precisely use yoga nidra TO help me fall asleep.

It's so powerful as a sleep aid that I resurrected an old iPod to hold a single yoga nidra track and I keep it plugged into a speaker on my nightstand. Of the maybe 200+ listens in the past few years I've heard the end of of this 20min track less than 10 times!

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#20

Post by mattgreenrocks »

jwells89 wrote: post #10
FieryTransition wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the whole, I agree with you, but sometimes there are actually issues and that's why we get sick, when the body response is out of wack or lacking. Sometimes it's less about being tired and more about something which causes you to be tired, like being stuck in an unwanted situation. But yes, our work environment are full of dogmatic rules and preconceptions which are hard to break.

On a similar note, something I've observed is that the feeling of tiredness in the afternoon doesn't necessarily correlate with how much I've done in the hours prior. Recently I started doing more things in the morning hours, with the hope that I'd be more effective at those tasks (especially the more mentally taxing ones) earlier in the day than when I had been doing them previously, which was typically in the after…

Most of my afternoon fatigue comes down to eating too much or too many carbs at lunch. There's an amount that is just right...and beyond that, I definitely start down-shifting. (YMMV, of course!)
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