Are naps actually good for us Sleeping with Science
Transcriber:
Are we designed to nap during the day?
[Sleeping With Science]
Most people aim to get their
recommended seven to nine hours of sleep
in one long stretch at night.
And the technical term for this
is “monophasic sleep.”
In other words, a single bout
of sleep at night.
However,
we may not have been programmed
to sleep in this way.
Now I’m sure you’ve had that experience
of a drop in your alertness
in the afternoon,
where you start to feel a little sleepy.
And you can also see it
in other people as well,
as their heads begin
sort of bobbing up and down
during afternoon meetings.
Now you may think this afternoon
drop in your alertness
is because of a big lunch,
but in actual fact,
it seems to be hardwired.
Because if I place
electrodes on your head,
there is a reliable, preprogrammed drop
in your brain’s alertness
during the afternoon.
And it happens to most of us 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.
But is napping always a good thing?
Well, not necessarily.
Although we and other scientists
have discovered
that naps can have benefits
for both the brain and for the body,
naps can be a double-edged sword.
Long naps in the afternoon
or in the early evening
can just take the edge
off your sleepiness.
It’s a little bit like snacking
before your main meal.
So if you are struggling
with sleep at night,
the best advice
is not to nap during the day.
Instead, build up
all of that healthy sleepiness
so that you give yourself the best chance
of falling asleep easily
and then staying asleep
soundly across the night.
But if you’re not struggling with sleep
and you can nap regularly during the day,
the naps of around 20 minutes
taken early in the day
can be just fine.