nap restorative sufficiency

[rocketman]

i just now took a 3 minute nap. i didn't fall asleep but upon opening my eyes, i would say i was at about 75% full wakefulness (as opposed to maybe 25% before i began the nap.)

what is the shortest a nap can be while providing restorative efficacy?

is it always better to fall asleep than to awake before actually falling asleep? i have heard of the technique of napping with a spoon in one hand so that when you fall asleep, and it falls, you are awakened. does the actual act of falling asleep, if even merely for 1 brief moment provide some benefit over not doing so?

your knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

[rocketman]

oh come on. surely someone must be interested in this!

[RagsToRiches]

Basically there's no conclusive answers about how sleep works, and what is the most effective type of sleep. It's all based on statistics, so, just like nutrition, it's all highly contestable.

What seems most likely to me is that deep sleep is the most important and desireable phase of sleep patterns. Deep sleep tends to happen, for me, between about 45 minutes and 90 minutes of a nap.

So with napping you have the following options:

1) Nap less than 45 minutes... for me this provides a mediocre restorative effect, and a mild feeling of grogginess.

2) Nap for multiples of 90 minutes... I do this about 3-4 days a week. IE: whenever I get a chance to have an afternoon nap. For me this provides a big restorative effect. The main issue is falling asleep quickly. I do not use an alarm clock for my naps and I ALWAYS wake up after 90 minutes of napping (almost to the dot).

If you nap for between 50 and 90 minutes and get awoken you get awoken from deep sleep. This is generally considered to be very bad because you wake up feeling very groggy, pissed off, and basically want to get back to sleep asap and would probably punch someone in the face if needed to do so.

I have read that even extreme insomniacs sleep for periods of 5-10 seconds wiothout realising - this is the minimum ammount of sleep required for survival. But their mental performance is greatly decreased.

Rags

[Ronnock]

I think it has to do with not getting into the deeper stages of the sleep cycle (i.e. REM stage). From my understanding, the REM (rapid-eye-movement) occurs roughly around the fourth stage of sleeping (as for the actual time, I have no idea, I think that's heavily individually based).

I notice that sometimes when I get 4 hours of sleep or less, that I'm incredibly aware of myself and my surroundings more so than if I were to get 5-6 hours of sleep; albeit, I feel fantastic on 8-10.

As for the spoon thing...I'm not exactly sure, I could only speculate. I suspect that any state of subconsciousness or unconsciousness (as opposed to just resting with your eyes closed, but being awake) is more sufficient that formerly said state.

But to be honest, I only replied because of the sound of your desperate beckoning.

[scorpio1980]

I don't take naps much, but when I do I feel best with about 45 minutes. I usually sleep 8-9 hours a day.