Nap science?
March 19, 2024 5:19 PM   Subscribe

I want to try sleeping during the day to maximize my energy during childcare times. Do you know of research or experiences that would help me design the right plan?

I have intense childcare responsibilities from 630am to 8am and then again from 2:30pm to 9pm. All my life I have begun to “shut down” at 4pm. The only real solution is sleep. I had an idea that I could sleep 10pm - 5am, take care of childcare things until 8am, sleep again *at some point during 830am to 2:30pm, and then be refreshed and ready for the 2:30pm - 9pm “shift.”

7 hours is not enough sleep for me at night. My ideal is 10 hours. I haven’t had that for many years though. I’m also aware that most advice says only nap for 20-30 min in the day but I really think that’s not going to be enough for me.

So when should I sleep during the day and how much?
posted by CMcG to Health & Fitness (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Here is Andrew Huberman on napping. He can a little too much into life hacking for my tastes but he is actually a Stanford researcher and usually has some reasonable science to back up what he says.
posted by metahawk at 5:33 PM on March 19, 2024


Oh, if you're sleep deprived, ignore the 30 minutes thing. You've got a massive sleep debt to catch up on.
Get a full sleep cycle in there at least.

Just aim to have the nap finished 8-9 hours before bedtime.

So, given your bedtime is 10pm, aim to finish the nap around 1pm?

I know that's pretty early, but you're getting up pretty early at 5am (any way of shortening that morning routine?).


So if I were you, I would lay down, with an eye mask, eyes closed, with the intention of *resting*, at about 11am, and allow yourself to sleep up to 2 hours, but preferably it's around 1.5 hours which is a full sleep cycle, and if you wake up before that, eg after a power nap length, no worries, every little bit helps.
A sleep relaxation track might help, like https://insig.ht/AUsGJhuI6Hb (free app).


I also recommend if you don't listen to the relaxation track, setting a very unobtrusive little chime for at least 20 minutes, and just committing to resting with your eyes closed and not checking the time for at least that length of time, and if you really can't sleep or relax, that's your cue that you can get up. The relaxation tracks are about 30 mins and they also work for that.

(Whoops, will look for cites for the 8-9 hour thing when I'm home, pretty sure that was based on my own research for my circadian sleep disorder)
posted by Elysum at 6:35 PM on March 19, 2024 [1 favorite]


I'm Chinese American and my mom grew up co sleeping with me, she said the saying "sleep when the baby sleeps" was extremely true for her and recommends it if possible. Even if you can't sleep, lying down and resting helps immensely.
posted by yueliang at 1:16 AM on March 20, 2024 [1 favorite]


I nap till I wake up. That’s around 2 hours and I can do 4 if necessary.
posted by lokta at 5:25 AM on March 20, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I used to have a job that required me to get up at 2 or 3 am and since it was hard to always go to sleep early enough at night I often napped to make up the deficit. It really does help.

I agree that if you're not getting enough sleep at night you should definitely ignore any advice to make naps short. You should be aiming to make up as much of the sleep deficit as possible during the day. So you probably want to sleep for at least 2-3 hours if you can, ideally letting yourself wake up naturally when you've completed a couple of sleep cycles.

I'd probably try to start the nap no later than 10 am. If you make it the last thing you do, that could lead to a sense of urgency about falling asleep so you can get in the full nap length, and that can make it harder to fall asleep. It also would mean you'd probably have to set an alarm to make sure you woke up in time, and it could end up waking you in the middle of a sleep cycle. You'll be groggier afterwards if that happens. If you start the nap early you can just let yourself sleep until you wake up and that will give you a sense of how much sleep your body really needs.

Is there a time during the morning when you naturally start to feel sleepy? If so, you could make that your start time. Is there something you do that tends to make you feel sleepy? Doing boring work on the computer? Getting in bed with a book? Exercising hard and then sitting down to do something boring at the computer? If so, you could plan to do that thing sometime in the 8-10 am range and then get in bed as soon as you start feeling sleepy.
posted by Redstart at 7:08 AM on March 20, 2024 [2 favorites]


I highly recommend "Why We Sleep" for lots of science. The audiobook is very soothing, too.
posted by toucan at 11:44 AM on March 20, 2024


« Older Victoria & Vancouver BC in May   |   Doing magic tricks for my kids birthday? Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments