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Are Naps Good for You?

scientificamerican.com

21–30 of 64 posts

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#21
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, but if you don't go for a year, it will tell you the opposite...

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#22
post #19

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!

Nice! And good point. It works for both sleep and non-sleep power "nap."

There are different scripts for sleep vs mid-day rest. The main difference seems to be whether or not you set the intention to stay awake or fall asleep at the start of it.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#23
I often take a quick 20-30 min nap in the afternoon if i feel like it, and i always feel super refreshed, and ready to do some focused work again for a couple of hours.

So i would say yes, if you feel sleepy or drowsy a short power nap can work wonders.

Of course since I am working from home most of the time i can just jump on the couch. In an office this is not really possible.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#24

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…

Note that you shouldn't be groggy if you limit your naps to less than 20 minutes.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#25

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…

Why you need to follow specific techniques just to relax? They sound like more work and skill obsession.

You know, you can just lay low and relax...

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#26

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…

Why you need to follow specific techniques just to relax? They sound like more work and skill obsession. You know, you can just lay low and relax...

Why read a science book when you can, you know, just figure it out?

Yoga is a tradition honed over millennia, it's weird to assume that your first swag at the topic is just as good.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#27

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…

Yeah, it's quite interesting how energy works, AFAIK we still don't know if task fatigue is really a thing or not. But if it isn't, doing more in the morning would not leave you more tired than usual, assuming you get regular good sleep.

The body can be affected by so many things, and it's different for people what affects them. What you eat in the morning, sunlight exposure and consistent bedtimes is what worked best for me. I get an afternoon slump no matter what I do, but that is usually remedied by some physical exercise or breathing exercises I've found, and the longer I go without taking naps, the more my natural rhythm gets used to not sleeping at that point. But I've had periods with extra stress where I just need to take naps, but that is just something I've accepted and enjoy now when it happens.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#28
post #8

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.

The gym didn't exist as our bodies evolved. But neither did grocery stores. Stress and depression pushing you to eat more is your body telling you to get moving, in the past eating more required exerting a lot more effort.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#29

I often take a quick 20-30 min nap in the afternoon if i feel like it, and i always feel super refreshed, and ready to do some focused work again for a couple of hours. So i would say yes, if you feel sleepy or drowsy a short power nap can work wonders. Of course since I am working from home most of the time i can just jump on the couch. In an office this is not really possible.

Same for me.

Key is that it is a “micronap,” in my recliner (I feel a bit “fuzzy,” on waking, but I’m 100%, after just a couple of minutes on my feet.

If I lie down, my day is done.

Re: Are Naps Good for You?

#30

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…

> You just lie down and listen to an audio track.

> you stay awake

Yeah... If I lie down, I will not be staying awake.

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