This is all well and good for people who can fall sleep right away, a 20 minute nap would mean an hour alarm since it would take 40 minutes before there is a possibility of napping.
Everyone is different though.
I will eternally be jealous of people who can fall asleep immediately and/or nap. Just falling asleep is like a 30-40 minute endeavour on a good day :(
True that everyone is different, but out of curiosity have you tried a 20 minute catnap before? What was it like?
A lot of folks don’t really get to sleep in a proper sense when taking this short of a nap, but even though they’re still conscious they reap the energy benefits from the rest - more so than taking a more traditional break.
Yes, and sometimes I can nap, other times I just “rest my eyes” for about an hour.
I have ADHD, so for me my mind just wanders, even if I’m tired. If I can focus my mind and have it wander on a single thought it seems to be easier to doze off though.
This data is pretty dated. Your brain compensates. There’s something called REM rebound to where if you don’t get enough sleep, your brain will offload as much REM as possible to the end of your sleep, filling in the missing and crucial sleep cycle.
How does your brain know when the end of your sleep is?
Is your brain a separate entity? You literally decide when to wake to with alarm. Or if you don’t set a time, it wakes you after x hours, after it’s backloaded all the REM.
If sleep deprivation gets too bad, it’ll completely knock you out to get as much REM in as it feels you need to function, alarm or no alarm.
Studying neurobiology/neuroendocrine systems is a great way to question who really is in charge.
It’s a lot of work man. Just being human. A lot… of work…
Billions of years of evolution
So it just anticipates when my alarm is about to go off?
It could be you subconsciously thinking about it because of anxiety. It happens to me sometimes.
That keeps me from going back to sleep all the time. Like oh I have another hour? Then it’s 30 minutes to fall back asleep and then that’s only 30 minutes so better I just get up. I get tired by the end of the day a lot lol
Weird polyphasic sleep schedules take weeks to start working, so probably from patterns. Although if what op comment is true something else is happening too
Hmm I have my suspicions that this isn’t accurate
For me its just groggy regardless of duration
Have you been checked for sleep apnea?
Well now I’m going to ask about it
Getting diagnosed was very positive for me. I did a sleep study and I was stopping breathing like a dozen times on average per hour. Started using a CPAP machine and after getting used to it and training myself to keep it on through the night, I now actually feel refreshed after sleeping after years of wondering why I feel like crap all the time
This makes me excited to get my machine. I did a home test last week and stopped breathing an average of 35 times per hour over seven hours of sleep. Doctor wouldn’t tell me if it was bad or not just that it was well over the line to get a machine. Hoping to have one in the next week or two. I’ve been tired constantly for as long as I can remember, at least the past decade. Really hoping to have similar results as you have experienced.
i plan on getting checked for it as soon as I have the money. It’s definitely possible
Agree, any duration nap is a day ruiner
How about my 4 hour depression naps?
See if you can do 6 a day
You can’t be depressed if you’re unconscious!
Sad dreams?
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“Drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away”
That will interfere with my 16 hour sleep.
I wish there was an alarm that could actually detect when I fall asleep and wake me up at the appropriate time afterwards, rather than just trying to guess how long it will take to get to sleep and setting the alarm that way
Sleep as Android can do this
Naps are poison to me, even a short nap means I’m gonna be up far past my usual bed time and makes the next day absolutely miserable. I’m jealous of people that can get in a good nap and still keep their normal sleep schedule.
That’s our secret, we can’t sleep a normal sleep.
Imagine being able to sleep for just a nap instead of sleep through every alarm for 6 hours
i literally have 5 alarms on my phone and 2 on my smartwatch and IT DOES NOTHING
My brain when I try to nap: “4 hours, take it or leave it.”
For me the key to a refreshing nap is not breaking it with an alarm. I can sleep 30mins or over an hour at noon and if I wake up naturally I need 5mins to “get sober” and then I am super refreshed. If I Set an alarm that wakes me up at a certain time during my nap I need waaaay longer so feel awake.
My grandmother used the keys-in-hand method. Sleeping on a couch with one arm with keys outwards. Once the hand let the keys fall she woke up. That was apparently perfect for her sleep cycle.
Interesting. I suspect keys would not be enough to wake me up…maybe a bowling ball…
I’d need the bowling ball to start a Rube Goldberg machine that flips me off the couch.
well, seems there’s a market for a small hand-held thingy that sets off an alarm when it hits the ground!
Now try to see if you can hold a bowling ball for the duration of trying to fall asleep
Woosh!
This seems completely wrong.
Yes at 1:30 you are in deep sleep, as it is believed we sleep in roughly 3 hour cycles, where if undisturbed you’ll go for another 3 hours.
But that also means if you wake up after 1.5 hours, or really too early into sleep beyond 20-30, you’re going to wake up all groggy and hating yourself. Anecdotally I’ve always made sure to sleep at least 3 hours, even if I had 4 hour of time, I’d sleep 3 and it made it so much easier to wake up.
And for those who have trouble falling asleep, I suggest to stop using falling-asleep time to gather your thoughts and relax. If you need just close your eyes at another time and do it then to clear you mind (which is what meditation is), do that. Your body is a machine that needs to be turned off in steps, like a computer. You control all the knobs.
Sleep cycles are 90-110 minutes, so your entire comment is pretty much invalid.
lol that whole comment is confidentlyincorrect material.
Somebody read the “about” page on their sleep tracking app and fancies themselves an expert now.
I don’t see how the part about how to better fall asleep is “invalid” because I got it wrong. I did say it seems, based on the fact I thought cycles were 3 hours. I looked it up and I’m thinking of polyphasic sleep.
My anectode still works because I was sleeping 2 cycles. So at best, part of my comment is “wrong”, and that’s without taking into account I wasn’t saying anything other this “seems wrong”.
This is what these discussions are for, if you don’t like it go back [removed] on /r/science
Yes, so set that alarm just before you fall asleep!
I’m not very convinced at least about the grogginess. Usually for me is mostly random, and the reason that I don’t risk any kind of nap unless I don’t feel a bit obliged.
Why not eternity?
