4 ms·

Is staying up until 2am and having a disrupted sleep cycle good for your brain? Based on my own experience I would say not.

yoyohello13 3y ago
Are you saying naps lead to staying up later? I haven’t notice that to be the case. Naps don’t seem to affect my normal sleep schedule much.
- mberning 3y ago
  That is what I am saying. If I take a nap I will stay up a minimum 2 hours later. Not by choice, but by simply not being tired. I will say that before I got on CPAP I could nap and also go to bed at my normal time, but now that I have higher quality sleep at night naps are just unneeded and disruptive.
noman-land 3y ago
There's lots of research about bi-phasic sleep. It may not be so bad to get 6 hours at night and another 90 minutes during the day. That's 5 REM cycles.
- antupis 3y ago
  Personally I have noticed that for me best is something like 6.5-7h of sleep and and 15-30 minute nap on the day. Of course I usually go with just 7-8h of sleep at night because getting nap has stigma and you just cannot do it every day.
  - scns 3y ago
    > getting nap has stigma Hopefully this will be gone someday. To a future where taking a nap is seen as increasing well being (and productivity). Hm, a mandated nap could help.
- vidyesh 3y ago
  Interesting you put it that way, the 5 REM cycles throughout the day. From what I read, even for bi-phasic or multi-phasic sleep to work one needs to have a routine of REM cycles that make up at least 6 REM cycles. So if you do 3 REM cycles at night and 2 and 1 later in the day, it should be same rather than doing 6 in one night and then 2-2-2 the other day.
  - noman-land 3y ago
    I find this kind of surprising. I feel like I've almost never gotten 6 REM cycles ever. The recommended 8 hours is only enough time for 5 REM cycles, no? You need 9 hours for 6 REM cycles since they're ~90 minutes each.
rocho 3y ago
I experienced this as well. The key for me is to only nap if I'm really tired and to limit the nap at 20 minutes max (although usually I wake up after 10-15 minutes) and to avoid napping too late. If it's after 2:30pm I don't nap even if I'm tired.
vidyesh 3y ago
I think we light sleepers have conditioned our brain to work that way, generally the idea of a mid day nap is to get more energy to be able to do more. But I think what happens is (for me at least) if I take a nap I am fresh but it still feels like a mini-reset. I do not tend to get back to work immediately, my brain still needs some time to adjust to waking up mid day. So I have done less but feel relaxed and have too much energy to sleep early. Then I go to night owl mode, work and fall asleep 2-3am feeling very tired. So not ideal of night owls who thrive in the second half of the day, I guess?

yoyohello13 3y ago

Are you saying naps lead to staying up later? I haven’t notice that to be the case. Naps don’t seem to affect my normal sleep schedule much.

mberning 3y ago
That is what I am saying. If I take a nap I will stay up a minimum 2 hours later. Not by choice, but by simply not being tired. I will say that before I got on CPAP I could nap and also go to bed at my normal time, but now that I have higher quality sleep at night naps are just unneeded and disruptive.

noman-land 3y ago

There's lots of research about bi-phasic sleep. It may not be so bad to get 6 hours at night and another 90 minutes during the day. That's 5 REM cycles.

antupis 3y ago
Personally I have noticed that for me best is something like 6.5-7h of sleep and and 15-30 minute nap on the day. Of course I usually go with just 7-8h of sleep at night because getting nap has stigma and you just cannot do it every day.
- scns 3y ago
  > getting nap has stigma Hopefully this will be gone someday. To a future where taking a nap is seen as increasing well being (and productivity). Hm, a mandated nap could help.
vidyesh 3y ago
Interesting you put it that way, the 5 REM cycles throughout the day. From what I read, even for bi-phasic or multi-phasic sleep to work one needs to have a routine of REM cycles that make up at least 6 REM cycles. So if you do 3 REM cycles at night and 2 and 1 later in the day, it should be same rather than doing 6 in one night and then 2-2-2 the other day.
- noman-land 3y ago
  I find this kind of surprising. I feel like I've almost never gotten 6 REM cycles ever. The recommended 8 hours is only enough time for 5 REM cycles, no? You need 9 hours for 6 REM cycles since they're ~90 minutes each.

rocho 3y ago

I experienced this as well. The key for me is to only nap if I'm really tired and to limit the nap at 20 minutes max (although usually I wake up after 10-15 minutes) and to avoid napping too late. If it's after 2:30pm I don't nap even if I'm tired.

vidyesh 3y ago

I think we light sleepers have conditioned our brain to work that way, generally the idea of a mid day nap is to get more energy to be able to do more. But I think what happens is (for me at least) if I take a nap I am fresh but it still feels like a mini-reset. I do not tend to get back to work immediately, my brain still needs some time to adjust to waking up mid day. So I have done less but feel relaxed and have too much energy to sleep early. Then I go to night owl mode, work and fall asleep 2-3am feeling very tired. So not ideal of night owls who thrive in the second half of the day, I guess?