3 Great Reasons to Nap

For our hearing impaired watchers here are the transcripts:

00:00                                     Today on good morning with sleep. Well, we’re going to be discussing the top three reasons why you should take a nap. And I may be sharing some personal experiences because I’m one of those who has to have it. And I like to also mention the fact that I bring in a special guest at one point, which I’m not going to give you any more clues except it’s pretty funny. Hope you’ll stick around and watch. Thanks.

00:29                                     Cheers. Cheers. Good morning. Hi, I’m Javier and I’m Gretchen and this is good mornings with sleep. Well, and we’ve had a fun week. We had a chiropractor seminar. Yes we did. I thought that was a, I thought it was really neat. We had what four couples come in for her. Yeah. Yeah. So I was really excited for her. Yeah. And she booked half of those, what she was doing with spinal screenings because people need to know exactly where they’re having back pains and why and how bad it is. And she had this cool little gadget that she could do readings on there all the way down your spine. So I could tell you where you were out so you could understand. And if you follow us on social media, you know, that I was diagnosed, that I was dying. It was pretty cool. Yeah.

01:21                                     But anyways, um, okay. So we had that, I was in Carlsbad yesterday and the springtime weather’s struck again. I go through there in the morning, it’s a 52 degrees and I’m coming back and it’s 39 and they actually have snow on the side of the road. I was like, wow.

01:41                                     Yeah, our weather has been terrible. As you can tell, allergies and stuff are affecting us because things are trying to bloom down here. And 30 minutes drive, it takes you over 8,000 elevation. So up there when it rains down here, it’s snowing up there. Um, and our evenings are still dipping down into the forties. Yes. So we’re what kind of battling, I don’t know if things want to bloom or hold off. It’s just kind of chaotic.

02:07                                     Oh, everything’s blooming. Everything that’s why are allergies are going crazy. It’s just nuts. Um, so we had that, um, we have some new couches in the store or in your living room, sex here in the store, which that’s all your work. Yes. We’re excited about that. We have two new products that Gretchen will be introducing to you guys here soon. Uh, we’ve got, um, uh, help me out here drawing a blank. We’ve got the pillow protectors, which are not only pillow protectors, but you want to talk a little, just a little bit. Don’t, don’t just tease it because you’ve got to do the videos.

02:40                                     Okay. So if you are age rule where when you sleep or if you have a lot of sweat or if you have a lot of oil, this is a great way to protect a memory foam pillow. Yes. So we decided to invest into these and it also has temperature regulation. So it helps you with coolness,

02:56                                     great products, really great products. So it will be videoing that. And then we also have, um, something that she’s been wanting for a while. And I have always said, no, no. And what is that? Well, that doesn’t narrow the field. Oh, well the bed skirts maybe. Oh, okay. Okay. So I say no to a lot of product and we’ll talk about that.

03:17                                     Okay. So bad skirts. Um, some of the structures that we have that have a bigger spaces underneath, people request having type of bed skirts, they can hide this space where they’re storing stuff. Um, but then you also have some people that come through that like the clean look of a hotel bed skirt, but not in roughly bud skirt. So the opportunity to have that is now here.

03:39                                     Yup. So we’ve gotten that. Um, and we’ll be doing a little video shorts on that. Um, we’ve also got some more sleep in the news, which was something I launched last week. Short one minute video about articles on sleep in the media. Um, we’ve just got a whole bunch of stuff going on in. I’m pretty excited. Our, our video game has gone this far and we’re going to take it further. So I’m pretty excited about it. But today we want to talk about the top three reasons to take a nap. No. Yeah. And as you can tell by the thumbnail on this video, one of us doesn’t have an issue napping.

04:19                                     I would have to say I struggle with sleep all the time. And what that means is, is it’s not my pillow, it’s not my mattress. Um, I can’t even blame my husband, but I have vitamin D deficiency that keeps me exhausted all the time,

04:36                                     which is really a, a big reason why we researched so much because we want to learn so much about recovery, sleep for her. And I mean it’s, it’s so interesting just the sleep field. It’s so interesting. But anyway, so top three reasons to take a nap. So you go, you take it, cause I know you love napping.

04:55                                     Why can just sit here and tell you about my illness? Um, and when I wake up tired for one, it’s very hard for me to sit down and get into work mode because my mind is all over the place. So my focus is completely off. Yup. So my concentration is out the door. I literally have to focus on one little thing that I can drive into and then I can kind of taper it down into focus mode, but it’s not an automatic thing. And I even exercise in the morning. So it’s not even about not gearing up before I come into work. I am exercised and showered and here, but I still struggle with it as soon as I sit down.

05:30                                     Yup. So the number one reason for to take a nap is going to be to improve your memory. Retention.

05:37                                     [inaudible] memory retention I would have to say is harder for me if it’s short term versus long term. When I’m tired, I can tell you things that happened last week instead of things that I’ve adjusted.

05:50                                     Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, that’s true. And that’s, that’s um, not having enough sleep, but it’s also Napal help you with that because it, it, it actually will recall your short term memory faster. Another thing that, um, I know with me, what I get is, um, I forget faces and I forget names and when I’ve been able to nap or when I’ve been able to get like a perfect amount of sleep, I can remember faces easily

06:21                                     and what’s funny so I can remember faces but I can never remember,

06:27                                     oh well

06:29                                     I have had great sleep. It doesn’t effect, I really like

06:33                                     that’s just an issue issue. So that’s, that’s, that’s stuff didn’t have anything to do with sleep. Right, right. So yeah. So I’m uh, studies have actually shown that the faster short term memory recall, they’ve also shown the facial recognition. They also show, uh, that there’s an increase ability to retain information, which was what she was talking about, being able to hold on to the memories that, that occur. So for you, I mean, I know Sundays are really rough for you because you, I mean, you require a nap on Sundays because you’re just super dead tired after the week. You want to talk a little bit about that?

07:08                                     Yeah. Sunday is like my, um, re energizing day. I would have to say. Um, once we get into a routine for the day, um, I even notice as I start trying to push through getting stuff done that I can’t make good decisions. My body started saying, you just need to go lay down.

07:28                                     And it really does happen because she, she just, uh, like it’s almost like it’s, it’s a sluggishness, not only your body, but of mind. Right.

07:36                                     Yeah. Um, as far as, you know, trying to decide should I stay up and get my stuff done or should I just give in and go take a nap? I’ve gotten to that point where I just give in and go take a nap because I can’t think clearly anyways. My, my whole reasoning factors just go out the door. I start reacting instead of doing things properly and,

07:57                                     yeah. Yeah. So I mean a nap, sir. That super important. So, um, what, when you wake up, what’s, what’s one of the first things that you feel when you’re awake?

08:07                                     When I first wake up, I feel like my body can function again. Um, because prior to my nap it just kind of starts, it’s shutdown mode. So when I wake up, I feel like I’m rested just a little bit more rejuvenated. My situation is no longer about my fatigue. It’s more about, okay, I can get this done. Now I’m on, I’m on a path. I can sit there and think about what I need to do and get them done in the order that I need to get it done. Whereas before I was just trying to rush through stuff. There is no logic to it,

08:38                                     which brings us to our number two reason to take a nap, which is, it improves logical reasoning. And by that it means that, uh, people that nap see an increase in their ability to solve like cognitive thinking problems. And they also, they, they, they an ability to, um, to overcome issues faster than people that don’t take naps. And that’s not to say that a nap is necessary, but what it is is people that are sleep deprived or that are the type that need naps, for instance, like you, they, they see an increase in the ability to think fast and solve the issues. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So number three on reasons to take a nap because number one was improved memory. Number two is improved logical reasoning. And number three is it in improves problem solving skills. So again, I give you, because you are a napper, what does that mean to you? Improves problem solving skills. Give me something personal about what it helps you with.

09:43                                     Well, kind of, I kind of touched base on it when I said I react instead of thinking through stuff. Okay. So when I’m really tired, I just want to hurry up and get it done. Whereas whenever I go through a process, I know I have steps to do before I can finish the process. So instead of just reacting and just trying to rush through it because I’m tired, I have zero attention span, everything is out the door. So whenever I do finally just say, okay, I’m going to take a nap, I can actually get out there and do my stuff and do it correctly. Right. And if something goes wrong, I have a step that I can take. Whereas before it would have been a reaction that I can correct something.

10:23                                     So it’s almost like an escape to being normal again. Is that Kinda what you’re saying?

10:28                                     Yeah, the normality of life is just like a flow. You kind of go with it, but when you’re tired you stumble because you’re not able to just work like you would normally. You’re constantly struggling to get from one point to the next.

10:43                                     That’s actually really good insight. And so when you take a nap, you, you’re, you’re back, you’re back in the mix afterwards, right? Is that what you’re saying? Okay. Okay. All right. So, um, talk to me a little bit about if you’re not goes over the 20 minute mark. What, what, what do you feel if it goes over the 20 minute mark? Like I need another nap. Okay. Okay. Okay.

11:06                                     Um, I have times where I’ll wake up with a headache. Um, but I also have times when my body goes to sleep and it’s really hard sometimes for me to just like crank out. It’s weird because you’re so exhausted and you lay there and it takes a few minutes for your mind to just slow down enough where you can go to sleep or you’re letting go of the guilt that you’re taking an APP. So you have to get through that so you can go to sleep, whatever it is, you’re getting to that point where you can’t just like set your watch, say, okay, I’m gonna set it for 20 minutes. Okay. You know, so it’s really imperative that you kind of recognize what your surroundings are. Um, and that you make provisions for it. My thing is a completely dark room. We have blackout curtains. I love Alexa when she plays her music or ocean sounds and stuff. Um, anything that’s soothing that drowns out background noises and it’s just a steady sounds. Ambient noise. Turn the music and audio category of the skill store. The Alexa,

12:02                                     by the way, we have one in here, like two feet from the camera. So that’s what you heard right there, which is actually kind of funny. I’m totally leaving that, so. Okay. So, um, okay, well, so I’ll just run down the whole list of what she just described, the, the feeling that she gets when she, when it goes over 20 minutes and you said that you feel like taking another nap. So that’s actually a term known as sleep inertia. And what that means is when you go past a certain mark, your body automatically wants to go into the full sleep cycles and those of you that are non nappers, you’ll experience this when you wake up before your alarm clock, let’s say like you wake up an hour before your alarm clock, maybe 45 minutes before your alarm clock and you’re like, oh cool, I can wake up easy.

12:51                                     You know what, I’m, I’ll beat the alarm clock this morning. But you let yourself go back to sleep for that 45 minutes. What you experience as your body starts another sleep cycle. And so sleep inertia is basically your body carrying on to another sleep cycle. That sleep inertia after a nap that goes beyond the 20 minute mark can keep going for four hours. And that’s, that’s actually part of the problem that people have with naps. Um, and, and me being a non napper I, I understand the, the necessity for napping, but I don’t get why I feel lazy afterwards. And the reason is sleep inertia because my body wants to take a full sleep cycle, which is nice. What uh, uh, any word from 1.8 hours to four hours sleep cycle to complete it and your body will actually keep you sleepy that entire time. So that’s, that’s what’s going on there. Now you, you also talked about the ways to take a nap. And the one that I, I got the, that I wanted, I want to address now before the end of the show is the guilt of taking a nap. Can you explain that? Because I think that society, namely people like me see nap says, oh, well I’ve got so much to do or whatnot. But what is the mentality behind the nappers on that?

14:14                                     Well, we generally don’t have much time during the week to catch up on stuff around the house. So when we do have time, which would be our Sundays to catch up on the yard and the house and stuff like that. And my body’s kicking in and saying, you can’t do this and I’m sitting here moving, but I have to. And then I finally give into it. And then I felt guilt because then it puts extra work on Javier or it takes me away from time that I can be spending games with my kids, you know, whatever the situation is. Because if I don’t do just a 15 or 20 minute nap, I literally will sleep through to the four hours and I don’t have problem with that. That’s my issue. I struggle. So if I wake up after those four hours, I generally feel pretty good. But if I sleep for just a couple hours, I’ll wake up and I think I’m even more irritable. I just wake up and I just don’t feel good, you know, like headache pressure and I’m still exhausted. Yeah, yeah.

15:11                                     Yes. So basically it, it napping actually requires like a self discipline to wake up in time. Okay. Okay. I get that. Okay. All right. So the recapping the top three reasons to take a nap, number one is it improves your memory. Number two, it improves your logical reasoning, your ability to solve problems. And number three, it improves your problem solving skills. So basically clears your mind to be able to follow the path to solve problems. And then the other thing that we’ve learned this episode is you don’t want to go beyond 20 minutes because of sleep inertia, which sleep inertia is your body wanting to carry over to a full 1.8 hours or four hours sleep cycle. And also that you really shouldn’t feel guilty for taking a 20 minute nap if it’s rejuvenating and helping you work faster, smarter the rest of the day. So with that, I want to tell you that, um, we will be having, um, episodes on our new product, which I’m excited about because it’s going to be her first time doing this, this type of episodes. So I’m really excited. And then, uh, you’ll see us also with sleeping the news and until then, remember when you sleep well, you live well. Have a wonderful day. Bye Bye. Bye.

16:34                                     Yeah.