#194 New Year Naps

New Year

About 2pm on January 1st, 2025 nearly 1BN people will take a nap. Does it do them good or not?

A Five Minute Read

We can easily get to 1Bn people taking a nap. Napping is a natural phenomenon. This is especially the case when you get older. There are 850m people on the planet over 65 who will take a nap. In China and Asia there is a long tradition that naps are good for your health. In China one study showed 55% of middle aged adults regularly nap. Japanese studies showed 25% and the USA around 40%. We can include those parts of the world where a nap is a good alternative in the heat of the day.

Why Do We Nap?

Our body needs sleep to rejuvenate body and mind. New Years Day afternoon may be a very special occasion when it comes to napping. Staying up late to celebrate the New Year means many of us will be short of sleep. As we grow older most people find it more difficult to maintain their sleep. They sleep less at night and their night is often broken. Naps are the logical way for the body to make up the difference. We fall asleep in the early afternoon because of our circadian rhythms. The “post lunch dip”, as it is called, has more to do with our normal highs and lows than the lunch we are digesting.

Age brings with it other changes that can influence our nap taking. We exercise less, take medications and suffer from chronic diseases. When combined with boredom the chances of taking a nap increase. There are big differences across cultures but if you nap, you are not alone.

Naps Do Not Affect Nighttime Sleep

People often argue against naps. They say it will stop you sleeping at night. There have been many studies of the impact of taking an afternoon nap on your ability to sleep at night. It is true that sleep latency does increase by 6 minutes. This technical term is the measure of how long it takes you to fall asleep. Your sleep efficiency does not change. This is a measure of how long you are asleep divided by the amount of time you are in bed. Nor does the total amount of time you sleep at night. You may sleep a lot or a little but but the time is not affected by an afternoon nap. Studies have even looked at the patterns within your sleep. Those stages of Rapid Eye Movement and Non -REM sleep (Newsletter #186) do not change if you take a nap in the daytime.

Is a Nap Good for you?

If night time sleep is unaffected by a nap, then your total time asleep is higher per day. REM sleep can improve cognitive and physical function. Resting but not sleeping does not seem to have this effect. Slow wave activity sleep allows the memory to consolidate better. (See Newsletter #186 "Sleeping On It")

This at least is the accepted theory. The direct data is, however, ambiguous. Researchers have measured the impact of naps on many things. They have looked at subjective measures of sleepiness, fatigue, alertness and wellbeing. They have found inconsistent results. Some people say they feel more alert, others do not. They have looked at reaction time with and without a nap and found some evidence of an improvement. They have looked at the ability to memorize words and letters. They have looked at the ability to learn things like finger tapping patterns. All have produced inconsistent results.

We do have suggestions about how long a nap you should take. It seems that the best nap will involve a full sleep cycle. This will mean the three stages of non-REM sleep and a period of REM sleep. A full sleep cycle when you first fall asleep can take 90 minutes. Later in the night that period shortens. Studies on athletes have shown an optimum 90 minutes of nap on recovery after exercise. Short “power naps” are probably not going to help.

Why Not Nap?

It seems that a nap can do no harm. It may well be good for you. Do we not nap because it is socially unacceptable? If napping was as acceptable everywhere as it is in China would we all nap more?

ENJOY YOUR NEWS YEARS EVE AND TAKE A NAP.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

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