Why do we get so rested on just 10 minutes of sleep and why do we get the opposite effect if we sleep for a longer time?
In: 341
Short naps allow the body rest and recharge without going into deeper sleep states.
As you sleep longer the brain moves into different sleep states and once you hit REM sleep game over just hit the sack at that point
Important caveat: A power-nap makes you FEEL rested, but it’s not actually resting.
You don’t feel tired(sleepy) after a power-nap because your body and brain had no time to fall asleep.
I’ve always been confused by this. When you say “power nap”, do you mean you’re fully asleep? In 10 minutes I feel like I would lay with my eyes closed but still be conscious. Would that still have the same effect?
I would equate this to exercising a muscle rigorously. As this progresses the muscle depletes its internal energy and oxygen stores. The muscle also takes damage from the strenuous effort. Similarly, while awake the brain consumes lots of oxygen and energy stores processing all the data it needs to from inputs like your eyes, ears, forebrain cognition. Taking a nap is simply like taking a short break from exercising. It reduces energy/oxygen consumption allowing the brain to recover stores. Full REM sleep is required to repair damage and flush the system similar to taking a couple days break from exercising to allow muscles to repair.
Naps render me completely useless and zombie-like for the rest of the day. 5 min or 5 hours.
From my understanding. Adenosine is a chemical compound in our brains responsible for feeling drowsy/sleepy – the adenosine binds to adenosine receptors, triggering feelings of sleepiness
Any amount of sleep removes adenosine, eliminating the drowsiness as a result. If you’re feeling sleepy, a power nap of 10-15 mins can be enough to remove enough adenosine to stave off feelings of sleepiness for the short term
The body however ideally wants to use sleep to fully recharge, heal, process thoughts/experiences. So if you sleep too long, your body will begin to enter phases where these processes begin – deep sleep and REM sleep. At that point, you can wake up but because your body was jolted from an ongoing process, the sleep can feel incomplete or unfulfilling. That feeling of being jolted awake with your heart beating is you waking up right in the middle of REM or deep sleep – it’s not healthy
The trick is to figure out the length of time that’s perfect between a power nap and the beginning of restful sleep. For myself, it’s 10-20 mins depending on how fast I fall asleep. Anything longer and my body’s sleeping for the long haul
You either wake up feeling amazing or you wake up feeling like you’ve been on a 5 day bender.
[removed]
Once you actually start to fall asleep, your brain releases melatonin, which stays in your system for a while. Melatonin is a hormone that makes you sleepy.
Once the melatonin kicks in, you’re going to feel groggy for a while.
I miss my jawbone bracelet. That thing could consistently wake me up from a nap without feeling love I’ve been hit by a truck.
And they had to remove that feature in one of their updates, and later die all together..
Latest Answers