Category: sleep

no naps graphis with question mark Are they coming for the naps now? No. Not over my sleeping body.
fitness · research · Science · sleep

Are they coming for the naps now? No. Not over my sleeping body.

catherine wLeave a comment

In my view, medical research gets a lot right. We have good evidence that, for instance:

  • ultra-processed foods contribute to health markers that are linked to a variety of serious illnesses (like cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and type 2 diabetes)
  • physical activity is one of the best things we can do for our health, longevity and well-being, across the lifespan
  • developing and maintaining social connections of all sorts helps us maintain wellness and address issues in our own mental and physical health
  • sleep is a magical elixir that rejuvenates us and prepares us for the daily lives we want to lead (okay, the study didn’t use the words “magical elixir”, but they should have)

Here’s what Unsplash thinks healthy living looks like:

Unsplash endorses huge artichokes and hanging upside down more than the usual experts, but hey...
Unsplash endorses eating huge artichokes and hanging upside down more than experts, but hey…

We also know that some health claims are absolute nonsense, like:

  • sleeping with a bar of lavender soap in your bed will NOT help treat or cure restless leg syndrome ( Dr Mehmet Oz said this)
  • (fill in the blank) vitamin supplement NOT will cure (Alzheimer’s, cancer, Parkinson, COVID, etc.) medical condition (Oz promoted a bunch of these, too)
  • Using coffee as anything other than a delightful morning beverage is a BAD IDEA (the Cleveland clinic explains why, if you must know)
  • Virtually all advertised weight-loss products are BOGUS (trust me on this)
Yeah, no to all these things. Thanks, Markus Spiske for Unsplash.
Yeah, no to all these things. Thanks, Markus Spiske for Unsplash.

Let us now return to that magical elixir, sleep. Sleep feels good, does good, is good for us. Check, check, check. But what about its sweet cousin, the nap? Surely that delicious sleep snack must be a positive contributor to our lives, right?

I have to say that a somewhat recent scientific study came out, saying that daytime napping is associated with adverse health outcomes. In particular, it said:

Longer naps, greater intra-individual variability in daytime nap, and higher percentages of naps around noon and in the early afternoon are associated with greater mortality risks.

What?! Nonononononononononono!

Well, Prevention magazine thinks these scientists may be on to something. In this article, it asks the following scary questions:

Whoa. But don’t worry, Imma answer all these, one by one.

First, do some nap patterns increase our risk of death? No, not really.

The study looked mainly at the timing and variability of naps taken by older adults in the UK. It found oh-so-small increased risk for those who took naps at different times of day, for those who took longer naps, and for those who varied the length of their naps (which averaged 24 minutes daily).

BUT (and it’s a big but)…These results varied by gender (men seem more affected than women), by what time people arose in the morning, what time of day they tended to take their naps, how much they slept in general, and how much physical activity they got during the day. See this study for more details. And they failed to show any clinical association, just a small statistical one.

So napping isn’t really associated with death. Okay, one down.

Second: why would napping be associated with death? It’s not, not really.

Some sleep patterns reveal underlying problems rather than cause them; sleep apnea and chronic insomnia, for instance, tend to be symptoms of a variety of health conditions that carry their own mortality risk factors. But we already knew this. One of the study authors conceded this:

“The napping and mortality relationship is complex and may be influenced by adverse or protective lifestyle factors (e.g., nutrition, physical activity, substance use), nighttime sleep patterns, and underlying sleep disorders, medical comorbidities, age, as well as sex and gender-related factors.”

HAH! Told you. Second one done away with.

I told you so. Such sweet words.
I told you so. Such sweet words.

We are now in the napping-is-not-deadly-blog-post homestretch. Prevention asked, timidly, how can the napping-death connection be broken? Easy. See below.

Just get some exercise. Any kind will do. Walking, jogging, shuffleboard, bike riding (outdoors or in), swimming, dancing, playing with friends and family, yoga, strength training, etc. Why does this help keep napping from killing us? Because the adverse napping pattern (not napping itself) is often a symptom of known risk factors (like drinking or unprescribed drug use) and known medical conditions.

So, once more with feeling: it’s not the napping, folks. I mean, if you want to optimize your napping patterns, feel free– there are lots of articles (like this, this, and this) offering tips, which may or may not be true.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Now you must excuse me– it’s time for my nap…

This dog is napping. Thanks Mittra Ronjoy from Unsplash.

Shhhh… Thanks Mittra Ronjoy for Unsplash.

fitness · sleep

Theatre Kid Body, Swim Club Kid Work Schedule

Diane Harper1 Comment

I am trapped in the body of a theatre kid and have the work schedule of a swim club kid.

On the left, a swim club kid with sharpie “tattoos” that say “talk to the flippers” “eat my bubbles” and “I kick ⬇️” from a swim club mom blog. On the right, a theatre kid sings in an article from Kazoo Theatre

Almost 60 years ago, Mom put me in morning kindergarten to try and break me of the habit of sleeping late. Early morning classes and a full career of early morning meetings (plus getting kids ready and out the door to school before my workday started) hasn’t entirely broken my of my night-owl ways.

I am really struggling to get enough sleep, especially with sore muscles, arthritis pains and three cats who demand late night or early morning cuddles. I rarely fall asleep before 11 pm, and sometimes have to be in my lifeguarding chair for 5:30 am swim practices.

When I try to go to bed early, it’s not unusual to wake up 4-5 hours later and be unable to return to sleep.

I know some ways to improve my sleep hygiene: I already broke out the winter duvet so my bed is comfy. I’m reading magazines before sleep instead of looking at my phone, though I do need to move my Duolingo practice to earlier in the day. I am trying to remember to hydrate more throughout the day instead of suddenly feeling the need to drink a litre of water out before bed; that one is very much a work in progress.

What are your best tips to get enough good quality sleep at the times you need it?

A person in bed under covers with their head covered, too. from Unsplash. Century-old sleep research, which is still true
fitness · sleep

Century-old sleep research, which is still true

catherine wLeave a comment

The internet is full of advice for how to get more sleep, better sleep, deeper sleep, delicious sleep– you name it, the internet has a to-do list for anything related to sleep.

Don’t even get me started on pillows. Nap dresses have been well-covered by Sam here.

It turns out (unsurprisingly), that modern medicine has been working on better understanding sleep for a long time. I came across this 1925 article (reprinted in JAMA– The Journal of the American Medical Association) that offers us some useful observations about sleep. Here are some of them:

The state of sleep is NOT like being under anesthesia or in a faint (in case you were wondering).

Pulse rate and blood pressure drop during sleep, but do not cause sleep; rather, it’s the other way around.

To wit: “if the drop in pressure were causative, then reclining, being a position favorable for loss of tone, should lead to a more pronounced pressure drop than that of the semierect position, being more conducive to sleep.”

Sleep is sometimes peaceful, but other times we have active dreams and nightmares.

To wit: “the conception of sleep as a period of quiescence and recuperation has thus to be qualified by the contingency of disturbed sleep with active calls on the nervous system, the heart and the blood vessels.”

And here’s their conclusion, which no one can argue with:

In other words, what is true of many factors in life seems also to apply to sleep: most sleeps are good, but some may be far better than others.

Who needs the internet when researchers were hard at work explaining sleep to us a century ago?

Sleep well, dear readers…

Thanks, Sinetta Leuen from Unsplash for the sleeping person. We'll be very very quiet...
Thanks, Sinetta Leuen from Unsplash for the sleeping person. We’ll be very very quiet…

sleep · tbt

The plus side of placebo sleep,  #tbt

Sam B1 Comment

One of the older posts I often go looking for was one I wrote about placebo sleep.

What’s that you say?

Studies show that getting a bad night’s sleep is bad for you,  but knowing about it makes it worse.  People who were told that had a bad night’s sleep, whether or not it was true,  did worse on a series of standard tests.  The reverse was true for people who were told they had a good night’s sleep.

Orange cat on a blue blanket

Here’s the older post.

Quick! Get me some placebo sleep!

Maybe I need a Garmin watch that lies to me!

ADHD · fitness · self care · sleep

Christine is not a good sleep scientist

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

So, the good news is that I have been sleeping pretty well most nights over the past two weeks.

The bad news is that I’m not sure why.

Two cartoon mice from the tv show Pinky and The Brain.
I don’t think Pinky and the Brain are pondering my sleep habits but they can feel free to give it a go. Image description: a GIF of the cartoon mice named Pinky and The Brain from the cartoon of the same name. Pinky is a tall slender mouse wearing a bathrobe and sitting down and The Brain is a mouse with a disproportionately large head who is standing up. The Brain is asking Pinky a signature question “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?” In the show, Pinky would always reply with a nonsensical answer like “I think so, Brain, but if they called them sad meals then no one would buy them!”

You see, about two weeks ago , I accidentally started a very poorly structured experiment with my sleep.

I had had a migraine that lasted several days and I decided to switch out my pillow to see if better neck support would help.

And that same day, I came across the information that people with ADHD often also have a problem with histamines that affects their sleep.*And apparently taking an allergy pill before going to bed can help them sleep better. Since I already take an allergy pill every morning, I decided to try taking them at night, just to see.

And, as I was getting ready for bed that night, I accidentally knocked the medical tape I occasionally use to tape my mouth while I sleep. I first read about this as a sleep/anti-snoring trick in James Nestor’s book Breath and, yeah, it sounds weird but it can be really helpful.

It was only when I woke up the next morning, after a great night’s sleep, that I realized that I had conducted a very poor experiment.

A photo of three kids and a microscope
These kids are more effective scientists than me. Image description: three kids, one with long red hair, one with long black hair, and one with an afro, are doing some sort of science and the kid in the middle is looking on a microscope.

Sure, I slept well, but was it the pillow? The allergy pill? The tape? The combination of all three?

I had too many variables!

If I was seeking a grant or hoping to publish my findings, I would be laughed right out of sciencing.

Luckily, I was just trying to get a good night’s sleep and there were no governing bodies or juried publications involved.

I guess the sensible thing to do would be to start over or to cut out variables and see what happens.

But I don’t want to take the risk and end up sleeping poorly again so instead I am keeping up my little ritual of rolling my pillow, taking my allergy pill, and using the tape.

So, what’s the conclusion to this experiment?

Something in that combination of factors seems to be helping me sleep.

Or maybe the effort to set myself up for good sleep helped my brain decide to sleep?

Or maybe it was all a coincidence and I fluked into some quality sleep?

Look, I’m clearly not a scientist – I have too many variables, I didn’t use a control group, and frankly, there is no scientific rigour being applied here – but I am a person who is willing to seek a variety of solutions to an issue I’m facing.

And since this combo seems to have helped. I am declaring it a non-scientific success.

I think I’ll leave the sciencing to the scientists and just go take a nap.

A GIF of Donald Duck sleeping and snoring
I wonder if Donald is waking himself up with his snoring? Image description: A GIF of Donald Duck sleeping and snoring

*Is this true? I have no idea. But since I was already taking an allergy pill daily, I figured there was no harm in trying. And after that first night, it occurred to me that, all along, I had been taking my 24 hour pill in the morning and then, at night when it was losing effectiveness, I was going to sleep in a closed room with Khalee – my dog and my main source of allergens! Even if the histamine thing isn’t true, it’s probably a good idea to take my allergy pill at night.

fitness · sleep

Sam’s year in sleep! Zzzzzz…

Sam B1 Comment

One Very Good Thing that’s happened after knee surgery is that I am sleeping like sleep is my superpower again. Before surgery, I was waking up three or four times a night with knee pain.

A sleeping kitten on a gingham blanket

Just check out these numbers. They’re from my Garmin watch. My average sleep duration is 8 hours and 4 minutes. I feel like a sleep rock star.

Oh, but it does turn out that I lie about my sleeping hours. I say 10 pm to 6 am, but that’s off by about an hour. My actual hours of sleep are more like 11 pm to 7 am. Fine!

A year’s sleep in graphs

I wake up most days feeling pretty rested. But there is one thing I can no longer do. I used to be able to have the occasional night where I slept a lot less, say five hours instead of eight, and everything would be ok. Twenty years I go I could still pull the occasional all-nighter. No more! Now if I even miss a few hours sleep it takes a few days to recover. I can’t just power through. I’ve always liked my sleep. Now I need it.

Close up of a sleepy brown and white dog laying on a wood floor, once eye closed
Close up of a sleepy brown and white dog laying on a wood floor, once eye closed by cogdog is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Another good thing about my sleep is that it’s pretty consistent.  I might be deluded about what that time is but it does look like I regularly go to bed and get up at the same time.

A recent story in the New York Times talked about the heart health risks of inconsistent sleep.

“New research affirms what doctors have long advised: Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day for big health benefits.”

See How a Consistent Sleep Schedule Might Protect Your Heart

Here’s more:

“Researchers examined a week’s worth of sleep data from 2,000 adults over 45 and found that those who slept varying amounts each night and went to bed at different times were more likely to have hardened arteries than those with more regular sleep patterns.

People whose overall sleep amounts varied by two or more hours from night to night throughout the week — getting five hours of sleep on Tuesday, say, and then eight hours on Wednesday — were particularly likely to have high levels of calcified fatty plaque built up in their arteries, compared with those who slept the same number of hours each night.”

Zzzzz!
fitness · sleep

World Sleep Day

amysmithphd1 Comment

You may associate today with doom and gloom thanks to the Ides of March, but did you know it is also World Sleep Day? Now that’s a holiday I can really get behind.

I used to be a very good sleeper. I was able to fall asleep quickly and sleep through the night without any difficulties. When I was younger I would be able to function on minimal sleep or string together a few hours here and there to be able to keep a fun social calendar. These days I roll my eyes if my friends want to stay out past 8pm. I’ve always been a night owl but I now need a long time to unwind from any sort of activity before trying to fall asleep.

It’s easy to think about sleep from our individual perspectives – we know how much (or how little) we sleep, thoughts or circumstances that keep us from sleeping, and all sorts of data around our own sleep patterns. But the World Sleep Society has collected data on the impact of sleep across different cultures and countries. Their 2024 theme for World Sleep Day is “Sleep Equity for Global Health.” They state:

“Sleep is essential to health, but measurable differences in sleep health persist across populations across the world, creating additional burdens and reinforcing health inequities.”

Infographic from World Sleep Day Hosted by World Sleep Society The global societal and economic burden of chronic insomnia Chronic insomnia is associated with 11-18 days of absenteeism and 44-54 days of overall productivity loss annually.1 42 million adults predicted to have chronic insomnia globally.' $417 billion in annual GDP lost globally due to reduced productivity.1* $239.5 billion in annual 'hidden' intangible costs.1* Chronic insomnia is defined as difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep and/or early-morning awakening, occurring at least 3 nights per week, present for at least 3 months and accompanied by impairments in daytime functioning.2 All monetary values shown in 2019 United States Dollars. GDP = gross domestic product. References 1. Hafner M., et al. The Societal and Economic Burden of Insomnia in Adults: An International Study. Santa Monica, C.A.: RAND Corporation, 2023. 2. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2013. AT-IDS-00003 | February 2024

While I don’t love linking sleep metrics to productivity and GDP loss it may be a critical component toward equity across regions and countries. This link instead brings me back to The Nap Ministry’s framework of “Rest is Resistance,” which we’ve written about before (Tracy, Martha). They state:

“We believe rest is a form of resistance and name sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue.”

It may not matter which approach you take, so long as you “celebrate” World Sleep Day by getting some rest. Some ways you could enjoy the day include taking a nap (my personal favorite), practicing good sleep hygiene, or attending a community sleep-in or sleep awareness event.

Which way(s) will you recognize World Sleep Day this year?

Amy Smith is a professor of Media & Communication and a communication consultant who lives north of Boston. Her research interests include gender communication and community building. Amy spends her movement time riding the basement bicycle to nowhere, walking her two dogs, and waiting for it to get warm enough for outdoor swimming in New England.

sleep

Happy Nap Day!

Sam B1 Comment

Also, the Monday after ‘springing forward.’

“National Napping Day was created in 1999 by a Boston University professor and his wife. William Anthony Ph.D. and his wife Camille Anthony created this holiday to spread awareness on the importance of getting enough sleep and its benefits. The holiday was meant to help make up for the amount of sleep lost when the hour changes. The date was chosen because studies have shown that people are already at their most tired and sleep deprived after daylight savings changes. The change of the hour really makes a difference, but National Napping Day can make you feel like there was no change at all.” See more here.

I’m officially a fan of napping and I’ve written about it lots here on the blog.

These days I sometimes sneak a nap in my Philosophy office at work where I have a pillow, a yoga mat, and an alpaca poncho/blanket. (Thanks Rob!) It’s not a regular thing but when I have evening events on campus and I’ve had a tough workday, I sometimes nap after the work day before the evening events get under way.

Here are some of the Fit is a Feminist Issue bloggers’ past odes to napping:

The Joy of Napping
Sam is singing the nap anthem
Queen of the pandemic naps
Dec. 4: Take a nap!
If napping is “linked to poorer health”, does that mean it’s bad for me?

How about you? Are you a fan of napping?

Napping hikers. Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash.
sleep

5 years of sleeping with a CPAP

natalieh (she/her)1 Comment

Recommended listening: Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour

I’ve written a few times about getting diagnosed with sleep apnea and starting CPAP therapy. You can read my posts in reverse order starting here

My Facebook memories prompted me this week that five years ago I was getting my first sleep assessment.

The Past

Back then it was hard for me to accept my snoring was so serious I needed to wear this contraption. Spoilers, whenever I nap spontaneously I always wake myself up with my snoring. So. It’s a thing.

I took a long time to get used to donning and keeping on the mask. I credit my friends who shared lots of wisdom with why I stuck with it.

Neutral is a good word

I honestly feel neutral about the CPAP and slip it on quickly before bed. It’s done wonders for my sleep hygiene as I can’t do anything else but go to sleep once it’s on. I’m also wearing my handy dandy night guard 2.0. It’s bigger, it’s on the top instead of the bottom and meant to not let me indulge in grinding.

I do not get fussy about the maintenance. I wash it when it looks like it needs it. The prescribed maintenance of rinsing everyday is way way too much for me to keep with. And. I’ve had no problems from being slack with the washing.

The Gross Stuff

The one downside is when I get a cold. Apologies for the gross analogy but it basically becomes the mucas equivalent of a cotton candy ( aka candy floss) machine. The pressure wrecks havoc as I cough and gag on my own bodily fluids, you know, because I have a flappy throat.

Is five years of compliance remarkable?

I was curious how many people stay using their CPAP on the regular. Most information I found said one third to half of people stop using it after one year. So. Here I am committed to doing this thing every night.

The Wins

I am more rested. I no longer have chronic black circles under my eyes. No, I did not magically lose a bunch of weight and “get my life back” like the prescribing doctor claimed I would. My hair is really thick and shiny, more than it’s been in decades. I feel generally rested and good. I sleep like a champ. It is worth it.

Natalie takes a selfie wearing glasses and a shit eating grin. Her beloved and two grown ass adult children are behind her looking equally happy around a black table covered in art supplies.

And of course, the real win is reducing my risks of heart attack and stroke, turns out having enough oxygen is way important!

fitness · sleep

Sleep and self-compassion

Sam B1 Comment

Occasionally you come across a thing on the internet that is exactly the thing you need to read.

For me, this week, it was How to sleep better—when nothing helps you sleep better.

I’m struggling with sleep because of knee surgery. For the first week after knee surgery you can only sleep on your back (ugh!). After that, it’s a struggle to arrange pillows to make side sleeping possible. I awake with knee pain frequently. It was pretty much on the hour right after surgery and then 3-4 hours sleep at a stretch after that.

For the first while, I was staying awake until I was absolutely completely exhausted and falling hard and fast asleep at about 6 am.

To be clear, it’s not excruciating pain. There are very strong drugs for that. But it’s enough pain to make sleeping through the night a thing that just isn’t happening. It’s enough pain to wake me up and enough pain to make getting back to sleep challenging.

I’m napping most days, sometimes twice a day, and then I fret about napping because maybe it’s making it more challenging to sleep at night.

There are various life stages in which this has been an issue for me. Normally sleep is my super power. The two most obvious are new knees and new babies.

And in both cases, I think self-compassion is important. You’re not ruining your sleep habits for life. It’s not a disaster to have a patch of time when you’re not sleeping 8 hours in a row.

I’ve blogged before about placebo sleep and the idea that what we think about the sleep we’ve gotten matters more than the amount of sleep itself.

So I’m focusing less on sleep and more on relaxing about sleep. I’m not back at work until the third week of May. If it’s still an issue I’ll worry about it then.

Yellow bear with red shirt and some zzzz’s