Why an Afternoon Nap May Actually be Good for Your Health
Many of us tend to fall into a pattern of sleep ingrained from our childhoods: eight hours (more or less) every night. Family members, friends, neighbours, classmates and everyone one you know probably follows this method of sleep, although you may not know its name, “Monophasic Sleep.” But what if I told you there was another way that you could sleep, one that could have health benefits and allow you to take a guilt-free afternoon nap?
Biphasic Sleep, as the name would suggest, splits up the amount of sleep you get daily into two parts. There are two ways this could be done: two sleep sessions at night or one nightly session and an afternoon session.
The first way, two sessions at night, would mean that you would sleep for a few hours in the early evening, then you would wake up for a couple of hours, and then later, go back to sleep so that a total of around eight hours are achieved.
The other method of biphasic sleep, involving a nightly session and an afternoon session, would mean that you would sleep for around six hours a night, and then sleep again around 2 p.m. for around 90 minutes. To everyone’s dismay, sleeping 12 hours, waking up at 11 a.m., then taking a nap at 1 p.m. would not qualify for the potential health benefits of biphasic sleep.
In the 1980’s, many countries considered biphasic sleep a common practice. In Greece, stores would open at 9 a.m. and close from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m., then reopen until 9 p.m. to allow for an afternoon nap. The modern age has mostly eliminated this practice, although some places across the globe, such as Spain, continue to follow a biphasic sleep pattern. Throughout history, biphasic sleep was considered quite normal. Some sleep researchers suggest that the invention of the light bulb resulted in a shift away from a split sleeping pattern.
Possible health benefits of biphasic sleep include improvement in cognitive function, enhanced productivity, and stress relief. Biphasic sleep also provides the ability to recall dreams, enables flexibility in scheduling, and helps with insomnia. Multiple studies have linked sleep and memory, which is why it may not be a bad idea to sleep after studying for a test.
But before you grab your pillow, there are a few disadvantages of this style of sleep. It may be hard to adjust to a different style of sleeping and the changes to one’s sleep schedule may make it difficult to go out with friends and work at a job that would require you to be there until 5 p.m. or so. There has also not been a lot of research done on the long-term effects of biphasic sleep, although one study suggests it is relatively harmless and may actually be more helpful than monophasic sleep.
No matter which way you sleep, getting about eight hours a night is always important.