Who says we need eight hours of sleep a night? People who sell drugs and other things to help us sleep, for one. But now come several experts who say eight hour snoozers are loosers, at least when it comes to creativity, and who claim that we could benefit by rethinking our schedules for sleep. The New York Times reports that researchers have known for decades that the body’s natural sleep rhythm is a “split sleep schedule,” in which we sleep for a couple of hours, then wake for a while, then sleep again. They also know that deep sleep “primes our brains to function at a higher level, letting us come up with better ideas, find solutions to puzzles more quickly, identify patterns faster and recall information more accurately.” The Times points out that at Google, employees are allowed to nap, because the company believes it may increase productivity, and that researchers believe that the cognitive benefit of a nap could last anywhere from one to three hours, depending on what stage of sleep a person reaches before awakening. Read more in the New York Times. What do you think? Eight hours? Or naps?
I loves me naps. I have always had trouble sleeping through eight hours, but once I started taking a couple of naps during the other hours, I found that I was seldom tired or sluggish. Naps are great.