For more context, I napped once a day for several months and would consistently find that:
1. It’s much easier to fall asleep for a nap than for the night
2. Napping doesn’t require darkness the same way regular sleep
3. Waking up after a nap feels more restful but also characteristically different–this might just be
4. If done after eating, grogginess can be paired with very mild heartburn.
I would like to understand all of how this works, either from a scientific perspective or just from people that understand sleep a little better than I do. Thank you!
In: Biology
I have never woken up feeling rested after a nap. I usually prefer to push as long as possible and then get in 6-7h of sleep,even if it means I wake up at 4-5 in the morning.
After naps I wake up groggy, I assume exactly because there is light, your circadian rhythm isn’t aligned, there is most likely ambient noise etc.
After a solid 6-7h of night sleep, is I manage to fall asleep around 23:00, that’s magic for me. I wake up rested, energized and no grogginess.
I don’t think we’re meant to be awake like 7am to 11pm as our current society forces us. Humans aren’t designed to eat 3 meals a day, do work in an office for 9 hours, have emotional and mental stress, then come home and work out, raise a family, etc. we think it’s what we need to do because we made society this way
All that is to say, a nap is you giving your body to rest up and recharge on much needed rest instead of waiting for the night. I feel the same way, a nap is infinitely better than a full sleep
It depends on whether or not you wake up after a REM cycle or not. You typically won’t have an alarm set when you are taking a nap, so most naps you wake up from will have you waking up after that cycle. You may typically have an alarm set at the end of a night’s sleep, which depending on when you fell asleep, will interrupt the cycle and have you feeling more tired. If you slept all night and woke up naturally, you would feel better.
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