Sleep On It – Science Explains Why
July 28, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
We all know we need more sleep. Scientific American explains the how and the why in an interesting series of articles about sleep.
It explains the benefits of sleep for memory retention. Being sharp is essential for making good decisions for your business and family.
A lack of sleep over a prolonged period can lead to obesity and heart problems. And for workaholics, morning sleep and afternoon naps can aid mental and physical learning.
An article entitled You Snooze, You Win explains
The intensity of learning new skills and information may drive the brain’s hunger for large amounts of sleep,” Walker remarks. He adds that “in order for an individual to learn new things, they may require a good night’s sleep before the maximum benefit of the time they spend practicing is realized.” Perhaps in the future a typical day at the office will start later and include a power nap.
Any discussion of sleep, no matter how interesting certain aspects of our physiology and/or psychology may be involved, is really just discussion around the subject, because discussion should be predicated on the undisputed fact that without sleep we humans, and indeed any animal that functions in a world of night and day,would not live to reproduce. We’re awake in daytime because our senses don’t work very well at night to gather food. We sleep because to do othewise would make us prey as we stumble about in the night. The predator sleeps because to not sleep would mean it would fritter away its energy being even less effective at catching food. Insomnia is likely an instinct that is triggered occasionally so we are less likely to be captured as a group while sleeping. The ability of our senses to function while we ourselves remain selectively active or inactive is a crucial aspect to any discussion. To deny any organism its ability to express its instincts is to see it founder and ultimately collapse until the instinctual need is met. I think I’ll take a nap.
I’ve never had much luck with naps. I tend to lie awake, thinking about things related to growing my business. The same can happen at night, though I’m pretty good about reading (fiction) for a half hour or so before I try to go to sleep. That tends to get my mind off work-related things and get my mind into a calmer state.
I suspect just taking a break from work and doing something fun could be used in lieu of a “power nap” too. It’s hard to do focused work all day.