Napping - Simple facts and helpful tips

NAPPING - Simple facts and helpful tips

Biphasic sleep: the practice of sleeping within 2 periods over 24 hours
Polyphasic sleep: the practice of sleeping multiple times within the 24 hours in a day (usually more than 2 times)

Interesting fact

More than 85% of mammals are polyphasic sleepers - sleeping for short periods throughout their day
Us humans are part of this minority - we divide our days into distinct periods for sleep and the other for wakefulness 
-Source: Sleep Foundation




With our busy lifestyles we are becoming more and more sleep deprived and restless. There is no proven theory that naps make up for the poor efforts of sleep at night but a short nap 20-30 mins generally can assist in the improvement of alertness, performance and mood. 

Helpful tip

20-30mins nap are recommended for those who are feeling fatigued and need to recover - this time frame allows improvements in performance and alertness without interring with nighttime sleep or the feelings of groggy-ness (if you know what I'm talking about  - after you wake up from a 2hr nap asking what year it is)

Types of naps 

• Planned napping - involves the preparing/decision to nap beforehand - use this to allow the body and mind to stay up a little later than the usual bed time or to improve tiredness throughout the day
• Emergency napping - needed when the body starts to give out and you can't shake off the feeling - users tend to micro sleep
• Habitual napping - practice of taking a nap at the same time everyday 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biphasic_and_polyphasic_sleep 
https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/napping

Writer
Lousie Le
Lousie.le@students.mq.edu.au
https://twitter.com/MacqNap