Tag Archives: sleep

short naps good, long naps bad

As I move deeper into middle age, I consider the luxury of a mid-afternoon nap to be one of life’s great pleasures. 30 minutes is about right, according to this article. After reading the article though, I can’t help wondering if longer naps are more of a symptom of other health problems or poor lifestyle choices rather than a driver of them.

My personal prescription for a little mid-afternoon pick-me-up:

Read a book (Kindle is okay, computer or phone not recommended) until you start to feel a bit sleepy.
Close eyes for 20-30 minutes. Just relax, don’t put any pressure on yourself to sleep, or consider meditation if you don’t feel sleepy.
Open your eyes and read a bit more.
Get up and exercise for 20-30 minutes.
Take a shower.
Have a cocktail. Don’t overdo it, just one is good.
Now you’re ready for dinner, people, or whatever you want/need to do in the evening.

Obviously this is not a daily prescription for the harried working parent. I find maybe one afternoon per month to do this, but it is oh so rejuvenating mentally and physically. I fantasize about doing this every day in retirement.

sleep apps and gadgets

Here’s a roundup of some sleep apps and gadgets from Wired. They sought an independent doctor’s opinion on each. And just a reminder there is nothing for sale on this blog, at least at the moment.

Withings Sleep Tracking Mat – technically more of a medical monitoring device, it “goes under your mattress and tracks your sleep cycles, heart rate, and snoring through the night to give you a detailed breakdown of how well you slept, all summed up with an overall sleep score.”
Bose Sleepbuds II – ear buds that block external sound and play noises to help you sleep. I can attest this works because I use my $10 Sony earbuds this way. Sometimes I just use them to block external sound, with no sound playing. Occasionally I use the Mynoise app (not mentioned in this article). Other times I play the Audible app or podcasts (I’m currently trying Overcast because Apple podcasts seems to be f—ed up). This makes insomnia entertaining and informative whether it actually helps me fall asleep or not. But I think it does, because 15 minutes of listening to a book quiets my mind from whatever was troubling it, unless the book itself is troubling. Doctor endorsed: yes
Calm meditation app (doctor recommended: no)
Somtryst, Sleepio, Headspace apps (doctor recommended: yes, and the article says the first is FDA approved as a medical treatment for chronic insomnia)
Somnox – a pillow that you “spoon” as it breathes. Weird, but no sex dolls were reviewed in the article. If you are lonely and want to try a sex doll, I say go for it. Think of all those jokes about guys rolling over and snoring within seconds of completing their objective. (Ladies, not so much if the jokes are medically accurate.) Doctor endorsed: neutral
Muse S – a headband that “tracks electrical activity in your brain” and translates it into “something like weather”, so you listen and try to make the weather calm down. Doctor endorsed: yes, at least for meditation if not necessarily for sleep. The author of the article didn’t like it however.
Moona – a chilled pillow and Chilipad, which cools your whole body. Doctor endorsed: yes, at least the Chilipad. I find this interesting having sweated out some hot nights in the tropics. Could you set the air conditioning warmer or forego it entirely? This could allow different people with different temperature preferences (not husbands and wives though, because they never disagree on this one…) get a good night’s sleep in the same room. This could also be nice on long-haul flights. Or if this really works, why not build it into clothes so people can be comfortable wherever they are. Maybe this could actually be a big energy saver compared to mechanical heating and air conditioning. Maybe you could incorporate more outside air in buildings and focus more on air flow rather than just temperature.

sleep optimization

This article is about devices that can supposedly help you get more out of whatever hours of sleep you manage to get. It sound suspicious, but appears to be backed by at least some research and scientific/medical opinion.

One of the most promising techniques to do so works a bit like a metronome counting the brain into the correct rhythms. Experimental participants wear a headset that records their brain activity and notes when they have started to make those slow waves. The device then plays short pulses of gentle sound, beginning in sync with the brain’s natural slow waves, at regular intervals over the night. The sounds are quiet enough to avoid waking the participant, but loud enough to be registered, unconsciously, by the brain.
BBC

One of the devices commercially available is made by Phillips and costs around $370 (I do not get any sort of commission if you click on this link or buy one.)