Hi there, it's Matt Walker here, and welcome back to the
podcast. Now. How can you really argue with the great Roman poets and one such Splendid Roman poetic, genius,
was Ovid and he wants said there is more refreshment and stimulation in an app even of the briefest than all the alcohol ever. Distilled clearly.
Covid should have been asleep. Researchers a brilliant Insight but are naps a good thing or are naps a bad thing. Are they even a natural thing? And furthermore, if you do nap, when should you nap and for how long should you nap? Today's episode is all about napping. Let's start with the question of how humans were designed to sleep. Most people throughout developed Nations, aim to get their
Did seven to nine hours of sleep in one long stretch at night? And the technical term for this is mono phasic sleep. In other words a single bout of sleep at night. However, we may not have been programmed to sleep in this way. And as we discussed in our episode on circadian rhythms, we become more alert and awake into the morning yet in the middle of the afternoon. We can experience this beautiful biologically.
We pre-programmed drop in our alertness as if we should be asleep for a short period of time during the afternoon and I'm sure you've had that experience. I've had it plenty of times that sort of drop in alertness. We just start to feel sleepy in the afternoon and you can even see this in other people. I think I've mentioned as their heads begin, sort of bobbing up and down during afternoon meetings. It's a dead giveaway of what's happening. Now you may think
Of this drop in afternoon alertness happens because of perhaps a big lunch, but it's not it's down to your biology. If I place electrodes on your head. I can measure this pre-programmed drop in your brains alertness. Every afternoon no matter whether you've had a big lunch or a small lunch or no lunch at all. And for most of us, it happens somewhere between the one to four pm. Mark, what this suggests is that we may have been designed to
Sleep in a biphasic pattern, meaning one longer bout of sleep at night and then a short afternoon nap during the day very much like the Siesta cultures around the world. And it's perhaps unsurprising that in the small island of acharya in Greece were Siesta naps. Have remained to this day. Men are nearly four times as likely to reach the age of 90 years old relative to their
American male counterparts and these napping communities have sometimes been described as the places where people forget to die. Now. I'm not suggesting, all of that is down to a simple afternoon nap. But napping may be a contributing factor which brings us onto the second. Fundamental question of whether or not naps are a good thing. Well, certainly, we and other scientists have demonstrated that naps offer many benefits for
Both your brain and for your body, so from reductions, in blood, pressure to improvements, in learning, in memory, even in creativity to the rebalancing of your moods and your emotions shifting you towards a more positive been to more Rosy outlook on life. Naps, seem to have proven their worth. And as a matter of fact, NASA clued into this a long time ago in the mid-1990s, they
Find the science of sleeping on the job for the benefit of their astronauts. And what they discovered is that naps as short as 26 minutes, offered a 34 percent Improvement in task performance and more than a 50% increase in overall alertness. And these results actually hatched the so-called NASA nap culture throughout all of their terrestrial
workers.
The partner supporting today's episode
is athletic greens. If you're not familiar with athletic greens, it's a nutrition drink and it combines a complement of antioxidants minerals, biotics together with a large array of different vitamins. Now, I will refrain from reading the full list of the content that you'll find on the back of the box. It would probably take more than half.
The episode to do so, but you can imagine it's very comprehensive. I have a pretty long standing history of using athletic greens and just for transparency. I do buy it myself. I am not interested in freebies due to the obvious trappings, but I've been using it for two main reasons. First. I'm serious about my health and as best I can, I try to have a full Nutritional Health insurance policy.
Second. I did my research on the science behind the ingredients in athletic greens and I do take scientific data as ground Truth for all manner of things. But especially including the information that I take to guide my health. If all of this sounds interesting and you want to explore it, some more you can go over to athletic greens.com forward slash Matt Walker and you will get three benefits first.
You'll actually get some money off your first order second. If you use the link athletic greens.com forward slash Matt Walker, they will give the listeners of this podcast, a free one-year supply of vitamin D. And finally, if you use that link, they'll also give you five free travel packs with your first purchase. Thanks so much for engaging with these ads and with athletic greens, as you can imagine it.
It really does help support and make possible the
podcast.
However, there's a dark side to napping
and it's one that's not often spoken about, but we really all must be aware of it in an earlier episode. We spoke about the building up of sleep, pressure of adenosine, across the day. And with all of that healthy, sleepiness, come the evening. We should be able to fall asleep and stay asleep easily weighed down by all of that sleepiness. And then when we sleep, we get the chance to clear away all of
Adenosine from the brain and therein lies the rub when it comes to naps when you nap, it can be the equivalent of releasing. The pressure valve on a steam cooker and then that will just relieve some of that sleep pressure. And for some people it can make it harder for them to fall asleep at night or stay asleep across the night. So the best advice is this if you are struggling with sleep at
Night, do not nap. During the day instead, stay awake across the day and build up as much of that healthy sleep pressure. As possible to set yourself up for the best chance of both falling asleep and staying asleep. However, if you don't struggle with sleep and you can nap regularly during the day, then naps are just fine. Which brings us on to the final question of how long those naps should be. And
Should you take those naps during the day? Well, it's best to aim for a nap of usually less than 20 minutes. And the reason I say that is otherwise, you can start to plunge deeper into your sleep cycle into the 90-minute sleep cycle. And when you awake, if you sleep longer, you can have what we call a sleep, inertia. It's almost like a little short sleep hangover where you feel worse rather than better, than when you did before you took the nap.
Now, as to the question of when you should nap, try to nap before 2 p.m. In the afternoon, certainly you want to stay away from late afternoon, naps and early evening naps as my Sensational colleague and very dear friend. Dr. Michael. Grandma often says napping late into the afternoon or into the early evening, is a little bit like snacking, right before your main meal. You'll just take the edge off your sleep, a
Tight and therefore you won't enjoy that full meal of sleep, can be evening and that reminds me of one additional point. I want to make when we are in taking participants or patients into the Sleep Center. I will often ask them. Do you nap during the day? And many of them will say, no, I never nap during the day and then I ask them a different question. I'll say, have you ever fallen asleep on the couch, watching television in the evening?
And some of them will often say, oh, yes that happens frequently, that happens all the time will sadly. That's what we call an accidental nap, and they are happening at the very worst time. They're happening right before bed. So if you have that feeling that Sensation, that you're falling asleep, on the couch, that is the Cardinal sign for you to fold your cards, cash it in, and just get to bed. So, there you have it. A quick summary of nap.
All we designed to do that thing called napping or their benefits, are there dangers, and if you are going to nap, when should you do it? And for how long. And with that? I will simply say, thank you. So very much again for listening to these episodes and subscribing to the podcast. It really does mean the world to me, and I will see you in the next episode for now. Take care
and goodbye from me.
