(Source: Squidoo.com)
How come? I am all but sure that this is a direct result of my recent experience with power napping.
I have been practicing power napping for several months now. Usually in the middle of the afternoon, between 3 and 4 pm, I lie down for about 15 minutes in a sleeping position on a yoga mat. I use a pillow for the head. I close my eyes and try to clear my mind of all thoughts, focusing on my breathing, as in meditation. When I feel like I am about to enter deep sleep, I get up. This usually happens 15 minutes after I lie down. The sign that I am about to enter deep sleep is having incoherent thoughts, like in dreaming. Often I have muscle jerks, called hypnic jerks, which are perfectly normal. Hypnic jerks are also a sign that it is time for me to get up.
After getting up I tend to feel very refreshed and relaxed. My ability to do intellectual work is also significantly improved. If I make the mistake of going further, and actually entering a deep sleep stage, I get up feeling very groggy and sleepy. So the power nap has to end at around 15 minutes for me. For several people I know, this time ranges from 10 to 20 minutes. It seems that once one enters a deep sleep phase, it is better to then sleep for at least a few hours.
Power napping is not as easy as it sounds. If one cannot enter a state of meditation at the beginning, the onset of sleep does not happen. You have to be able to clear your mind of thoughts. Focusing on your breathing helps. Interestingly, once you become experienced at power napping, you can often induce actual sleep in almost any situation – e.g., on a flight or when you arrive in another country. That is what happened with me during this trip. Even though I had been waking up at night since I arrived in Europe, I would manage to go right back to sleep. Previously, in other trips to Europe, I would be unable to go back to sleep after I woke up in the middle of the night.
There is a wonderful book by Sara C, Mednick, Ph.D. Take a Nap! Change your life. Get it and read it. It was written after some sleep studies at Harvard. It teaches you how to "power nap". I'm a shift worker and naping on off days has really helped.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book suggestion. Here is the Amazon link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Take-Nap-Change-Your-Life/dp/0761142908
Overall the book has good reviews.
I remember seeing a Bruce Parry "Tribe" episode where he followed some HG's on a hunt. They set off into the jungle and just before they started hunting all the guys lie down on the ground and go to sleep! Bruce was wide awake and excited about hunting but the guys said they were tired and needed a snooze before catching prey. After watching many programmes of this ilk it's interesting to see how little activity HG's actually get; quite a sedentary life with bursts of action.
ReplyDeleteOh! the hypnic jerks are normal? I always thought it was a bad sign when it would happen to me (during a daytime nap). I thought they were a sign of anxiety or too much circulating cortisol. Good to read that they're normal.
ReplyDeleteHi Winalot.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, HGs don't seem to experience a lot of anticipatory anxiety (AA) either.
AA is so common among modern humans. It is essentially stress in anticipation of an activity that is perceived as potentially stressful.
Hi Ellen.
ReplyDeleteMany people are concerned about hypnic jerks (HJs).
HJs are perfectly normal in the context of falling asleep, but not outside that (fairly narrow) context.
By the way, Ned... great blog! Love the info you feature.
ReplyDeleteSenior engineer I worked with had an egg timer that he would set to 20 mins. He would put his head on the desk and NOBODY dared disturb him. He also did it when he drove straight through to Florida from Michigan.
ReplyDeletePS Surprised that you have not commented on this: Tibetan Gene Divergence
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/07/why-tibetans-breath-so-easy-up-high/#more-4709
Power napper here. I used to walk at work during lunch time. One day I just decided to get in my car and take a nap (about 20 min). It was amazing how much better I felt, much better than with the walking. I have a sedentary job in front of a computer, and I think the nap gives a much needed rest to the eyes and mind. mari
ReplyDeleteHi Michael.
ReplyDeleteThe Discover Mag article does go to show something that I often repeat here on this blog, but that many people don't really think is true.
That is that a genotype can evolve in a population in a very short period of time (relatively speaking), even when selection pressure is relatively small (e.g., a 1 percent reproductive success advantage).
We are talking about hundreds of years, or a few thousand years, not millions of years. I discussed this in one of my very first posts on this blog:
http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-long-does-it-take-for-food-related.html
This is why I am frequently skeptical of studies of healthy isolated populations that argue that the diets and lifestyles of the isolated populations are optimal for all of us.
Given the way selection operates, it is almost guaranteed that a specific diet adopted by an isolated population (e.g., a diet heavy on cheese, fruits etc.) will lead to evolutionary changes, which will be reflected in genetic differences between the descendants of the isolated population and others.
This paper, I believe, puts the time of change at 300 years.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts on power napping. The way you describe it seems a lot like the way young kids naturally fall asleep quickly. Yet another "skill" that was likely already with us at birth, lost through development in a "civilized" community, and needing a lot of practice and patience to regain. It reminds me of Mark Sisson's take on play.
ReplyDeleteHi Aaron. Yes, I think we unlearn a lot of things as we age in modern environments.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a series of books (9 in total, I think) that I read a while ago, about the traditional Yaqui way of life.
The books were written as memoirs; the consensus is that they are largely fictional, but based on the author's research.
One way of another, they have a number of very powerful philosophical insights into human nature. The author is the late Carlos Castaneda:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda
I also want to thank for suggesting a very amazing book. I just wish that I can find it in a local book store. I like this topic so much.
ReplyDeleteMight be a good idea to pay attention to what you are thinking at the time you are feeling stressed. Sometimes we can have negative thoughts that produce stress without really realizing it. Just watch what you're thinking and then flip it to something positive.
ReplyDeletePsychological Therapist