Do you take naps?

Alizerine

Alizerine

Senior Member
I'm always open to shortcuts to better health. This article recommends short naps for better brain health. Recently while visiting my aging cat on a soft bed, I fell asleep for about 15 minutes. It was refreshing and I was able to tackle the chores I had been postponing.

University College London researchers have found that regularly taking naps throughout the day can help keep the brain healthy and potentially delay ageing. According to the study, individuals who take regular naps have brains that are 15 cubic centimetres larger, which is equivalent to delaying ageing by three to six years. Researchers have suggested that napping for less than half an hour is optimal, but work culture often frowns upon daytime sleep. While napping is critical for babies’ development, it becomes less common as we age and then resurges in popularity after retirement. Approximately 27% of people over 65 report having a daytime nap. Poor sleep has been linked to Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The researchers suggest that napping could compensate for deficient sleep and protect against neurodegeneration by preventing inflammation and affecting the connections between brain cells. However, whether napping could help prevent diseases like Alzheimer's will still require further research. The study used data from 35,000 people aged 40 to 69, taking part in the UK Biobank project, to identify 97 snippets of our DNA that either make us more likely to be nappers or to power through the day. The results showed a 15 cubic centimetre difference in brain size, equivalent to 2.6 to 6.5 years of ageing. The researchers did not directly study having a big sleep in the middle of the day, but said the science pointed towards a cut off of half an hour.
 

No more than once or twice a day, LOL.

I think I am a polyphasic sleeper rather than a monophasic one. I spread my sleep out over 2 or three periods rather than one. I believe it is fairly normal, in fact monophasic sleep is something forced on many to fit into the modern lifestyle, not necessarily natural. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

I usually fall asleep around 10 pm, wake at about 3:30 am (~5.5 hours), get up shower and go to the gym. When I get home I take a nap for ~2 hours. Total sleep is about 7 or 8 hours. Seems to work as well or better for me than sleeping for 7 or 8 hours in row.
 
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Sometimes yes. Some nights I sleep well and some nights I don’t. There are days that I love taking a nice nap , sometimes sleeping for 2 hours however it’s not something I do often since it would ruin my natural sleep pattern and it’s not recommended for people with depression.
 
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Not a napper. I have, by accident, fallen into a nap a few times only to awake confused, grouchy and bad-tempered. Ugh.

I read somewhere that in olden days, like maybe medieval times, people normally slept twice. There was a thing called "the second sleep"

A piece of an article about "Bi-phasic Sleep":
Around a third of the population have trouble sleeping, including difficulties maintaining sleep throughout the night.

While nighttime awakenings are distressing for most sufferers, there is some evidence from our recent past that suggests this period of wakefulness occurring between two separate sleep periods was the norm.

Throughout history, there have been numerous accounts of segmented sleep, from medical texts, to court records and diaries, and even in African and South American tribes, with a common reference to "first" and "second" sleep.

Anthropologists have found evidence that during pre-industrial Europe, bi-modal sleeping was considered the norm. Sleep onset was determined not by a set bedtime, but by whether there were things to do.

Historian A. Roger Ekirch's book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past describes how households at this time retired a couple of hours after dusk, woke a few hours later for one to two hours, and then had a second sleep until dawn.

During this waking period, people would relax, ponder their dreams, or have sex. Some would engage in activities like sewing, chopping wood, or reading, relying on the light of the moon or oil lamps.

https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again
 
Jace said:
Some days...if "I hit the wall"".. know it's time to "give in"..
For a ''"power"" nap..then I can get more done.
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It’s rare. It does happen and I waken feeling human again.

Alligatorob said:
I usually fall asleep around 10 pm, wake at about 3:30 am (~5.5 hours), get up shower and go to the gym. When I get home I take a nap for ~2 hours. Total sleep is about 7 or 8 hours. Seems to work as well or better for me than sleeping for 7 or 8 hours in row.
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You must have better hair than I. When I get up in the morning, my hair is out of control and requires washing. I’d hate to do it twice.
 
This was reported in the papers today...

According to a new study, getting some shut eye in the daytime can have major health benefits on the brain.


As the brain ages, it shrinks in volume - particularly in the frontal cortex, causing memory decline. Meanwhile, blood pressure rises, increases the risk of stroke and ischaemia increases - a condition that reduces blood flow.

However, a marker of good brain health is its size, and having a brief snooze can help keep the brain bigger as it ages. This can also help to lower the risk of dementia and other diseases, researchers claim.

Going to sleep for as little as 30 minutes a day can hinder brain shrinkage, which naturally occurs as people get older. Brain shrinkage is accelerated in people with cognitive problems and neurodegenerative diseases, with some research suggesting this may be related to sleep problems.

The study - which was conducted by the University College London - found that the brains of people who nap often were 5 cubic centimetres (0.9 cubic inches) larger. This is the equivalent to delaying ageing in the brain by around three to six years.
 
I like to deeply listen to music. That is, silence, no movement, enjoy every note and nuance. The trouble today is, the line between a deep listen and a nap is thin. :D

I enjoy a nap. Why not? A good afternoon nap sets me up well for a sleep at night.
 
As pain has increased, sleep has severely decreased. Naps which just happen while I am on the computer or watching tv or even just sitting quietly are a welcome thing.

Some of these naps are anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 1/2 hours. I find naps overtake me especially after working hard physically, getting fresh air, or trying to slow down pray and meditate.

People who can nap on cue for a short amount of time, must have some secret. One of the places I worked had a room where we could go and nap- althought if you did, they didn't like it. I only tried it once, it was not comfortable in the setting.
 
I've only napped very occasionally. The result is one of 2 things:
If the nap is short, I'm grumpy and out of sorts for the rest of the day.
If the nap is long, I wake up way too late and any restful sleep that night is out the window.
With this in mind, I try not to nap at all.
 

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