Day Time Nap For Better Health
December 23, 2021
We live in a culture where monophasic (once a day) sleeping has become the normal pattern. However, if you look at tribes that are still largely as they have been for centuries, you will see they use a biphasic sleep pattern. The tribes are predominately sleeping at night for around 8 hours then having a 30-60 minute nap in the afternoon.
While sleep has now been shaped by cultures, sleep is not from a cultural origin, it is deeply biological. All humans regardless of culture or location have a genetically wired dip in alertness that will occur in the mid-afternoon hours. I personally have referred to this as the 3 O’clock lull before. Take a second and have a think about yourself in the mid-afternoon, it is likely you relate to exactly what I write about. I am sure you all have experienced the drowsiness that takes hold mid-afternoon.
This phenomenon you are experiencing is called the post-prandial alertness dip (from the Latin word prandium meaning “meal”). This dip in alertness and the feeling of needing to have a sleep comes after eating lunch, and it appears to be a normal part of the daily circadian rhythm of life.
While modern society has stripped us of the arrangement of natural biphasic sleep our genetic coding is still trying to reinstate it every day.
And the absence of the afternoon nap could be causing negative health consequences. If we compare the data of health researchers from Harvard University in which they studied regions of the world where afternoon naps are still observed (siestas) the results are alarming. At the start of the 6-year study, none of the participants had a history of heart disease or stroke. By the end of the study, there was a 37% increased risk of death from heart diseases in the subjects who stopped having afternoon siestas, relative to those who continued the siestas. The findings from this study can argue that the absence of biphasic sleep can be a cause of shortened life expectancy.
It would appear that our genetic code includes the practice of natural biphasic sleep. Part of the prescription to a long healthy life may be to have 2 sleeping periods a day, a long night sleep, and a shorter afternoon nap, along with a healthy diet and exercise this could be the magic pill everyone is seeking!!!
The next question is, how do you find a way to have a nap every day? Whilst we have been stripped from it in the modern world it is evident that if you can take an afternoon nap it will be of benefit to our health. Even a 10-minute nap can be extremely beneficial if you can find the time for it. And the truth is we should be finding time for it and discussing with our employers on how it could be incorporated into the work day.
* Information from the book “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker.
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Day Time Nap For Better Health
December 23, 2021
We live in a culture where monophasic (once a day) sleeping has become the normal pattern. However, if you look at tribes that are still largely as they have been for centuries, you will see they use a biphasic sleep pattern. The tribes are predominately sleeping at night for around 8 hours then having a 30-60 minute nap in the afternoon.
While sleep has now been shaped by cultures, sleep is not from a cultural origin, it is deeply biological. All humans regardless of culture or location have a genetically wired dip in alertness that will occur in the mid-afternoon hours. I personally have referred to this as the 3 O’clock lull before. Take a second and have a think about yourself in the mid-afternoon, it is likely you relate to exactly what I write about. I am sure you all have experienced the drowsiness that takes hold mid-afternoon.
This phenomenon you are experiencing is called the post-prandial alertness dip (from the Latin word prandium meaning “meal”). This dip in alertness and the feeling of needing to have a sleep comes after eating lunch, and it appears to be a normal part of the daily circadian rhythm of life.
While modern society has stripped us of the arrangement of natural biphasic sleep our genetic coding is still trying to reinstate it every day.
And the absence of the afternoon nap could be causing negative health consequences. If we compare the data of health researchers from Harvard University in which they studied regions of the world where afternoon naps are still observed (siestas) the results are alarming. At the start of the 6-year study, none of the participants had a history of heart disease or stroke. By the end of the study, there was a 37% increased risk of death from heart diseases in the subjects who stopped having afternoon siestas, relative to those who continued the siestas. The findings from this study can argue that the absence of biphasic sleep can be a cause of shortened life expectancy.
It would appear that our genetic code includes the practice of natural biphasic sleep. Part of the prescription to a long healthy life may be to have 2 sleeping periods a day, a long night sleep, and a shorter afternoon nap, along with a healthy diet and exercise this could be the magic pill everyone is seeking!!!
The next question is, how do you find a way to have a nap every day? Whilst we have been stripped from it in the modern world it is evident that if you can take an afternoon nap it will be of benefit to our health. Even a 10-minute nap can be extremely beneficial if you can find the time for it. And the truth is we should be finding time for it and discussing with our employers on how it could be incorporated into the work day.
* Information from the book “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker.
