Sleepy course 😴 Day 25

Incidentally, I forgot to mention yesterday that while changing your regime, you initially might feel some drowsiness, especially in the mornings.

Don’t worry, though. In 5-7 days your body will adjust and start to spoil you with energy.

Switching to earlier hours may fail due to a genetic trait. Mutations in the gene PER3 turn people into veritable night birds. But it happens rarely, so don’t be alarmed. If you suspect you may have this mutation, write to my developers, they’ll suggest additional literature.

Until now, we only talked about how to sleep better at night and avoided the topic of sleep at daytime. It’s time we change that. 🙂

Daytime sleep ☀️

I left the topic for the end of the course because it’s a complicated one. We will have to rack our brains to arrive at the right conclusion.

As usual, let’s look at science and start with the good news.

Daytime sleeping drastically increases effectiveness during the day, and even improves some cognitive functions. It’s especially beneficial for memory. If you need to soak a lot of new information, taking a nap is a good solution.

Moreover, research tells us that even a 10-minute nap can make you more alert and efficient for as long as 2.5 hours.

Maybe it was just the effect of resting? Did people catch a second wind after a short break? But no, scientists take into account that possibility. The group rested with close eyes instead of sleeping didn’t show such a strong restorative effect.

Overall, daytime sleep is like a superpower in that respect!

You might ask, “What’s the catch if it seems so great?” Well, there are two catches.

The first one is trivial. Daytime sleep can negatively affect the quality of nighttime sleep. But the effect is only seen in the research if you sleep for more than 30 minutes, and it’s only apparent in older people. Healthy adult people usually don’t have any problems, but you should warn the elder generation.

The second one is more serious. Observational studies show that daytime sleepers have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. But just like with research on coffee, it’s not clear whether the daytime sleep causes negative effects. However, there is a correlation and we should take into account.

The good news is that 10-20 minutes of sleep doesn’t increase the risks significantly in the studies.

Below is the chart that shows the connection between diabetes and daytime sleep.

As you can see, for sleep duration of fewer than 30 minutes the risk even slightly goes down.

Also, if you slept for less than 6 hours, a short daytime nap will be nothing but helpful. Just don’t take a nap late in the evening, lest you have a harder time falling asleep.

So, let’s draw some conclusions.

Conclusions

Moderate daytime sleep is a superpower that can quickly recharge your battery and become more productive for 2-3 hours. It’s important to sleep no more than 20 minutes. The effect of longer duration sleep is not fully studied and such sleep can only increase drowsiness if you manage to fall into a deep sleep phase.

Task:

1. We’ll continue changing our regime. Go to bed a little bit earlier today than you did yesterday.
2. Do the evening ritual ❤️
3. Try daytime sleeping, if you feel you need to recharge. Observe how you feel afterward and how it affects your nighttime sleep.

The studies:

• Naps, cognition and performance
• The restorative effect of naps on perceptual deterioration
• The Role of Sleep Hygiene in Promoting Public Health: A Review of Empirical Evidence
• Association of estimated sleep duration and naps with mortality and cardiovascular events: a study of 116 632 people from 21 countries