Eli5: Why do we sometimes feel more refreshed after a short nap than a full night’s sleep, even though we’ve slept for fewer hours?
In: Biology
When you sleep longer, you fall into a full cycle.
Ppl try to do 8 and that’s in the middle of a deep sleep.
Try to time your sleep in increments of 1.5 hours.
1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9.
You’ll get a full cycle and wake more refreshed
The trick to feeling refreshed when sleeping and waking is to wake at the end of a sleep cycle. Many of us get up with an alarm in the morning and it disturbs us in the middle of a sleep cycle, which can leave you feeling groggy and lethargic.
A nap however, typically lasts for one sleep cycle and our body naturally wakes up at the end of the cycle because it knows it is not time to fully sleep. This leaves you feeling refreshed and more alert.
If you were able to perfectly time your morning wake ups to coincide with your natural sleep cycle then you might experience a refreshed and alert morning.
“During a nights sleep, sometimes your body doesn’t get the real sleep it needs.
This is called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
REM sleep is the sleep your body needs every single night to be able to function properly.
On average, an adult gets about 2-5 hours of REM sleep a night.
Here’s the weird part;
During sleep at night, our bodies are programmed to, predict, this upcoming REM sleep. Your body goes through certain stages building up to REM sleep.
Sometimes at night, things get crossed and you don’t end up with the sleep you need.
If you feel groggy during the day and feel a nap approaching, you take a nap. Your body was already prepping for the REM sleep while you were awake (hence the grogginess) and you fall asleep. Waking up from that nap you feel rejuvinated! Congrats, you just got a full hour of REM sleep!
Sometimes during the night your body will be in a pre-REM sleep and sit in a comatose state until it does its thing, all the while missing out on REM sleep.
Getting on a regular sleep schedule and sticking to it is all that’s needed to remedy this.”
-Logan Wesley
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