Napping is good

I've believed that since I was quite young. I nap all the time. Now the NYTimes has an article in which experts advise on the proper way to nap. That's a good thing, but I do wonder what has happened that we are so far from the natural rhythms of our body and brain that we need an expert to advise us on napping. I suppose the expertise is necessary to overcome the effects of a misplaced emphasis on the moral value of work, which necessarily precludes napping during the part of the day reserved for work. Anyhow, here's the article:

Alica Callahan, You Deserve a Great Nap, NYtimes, November 23, 2023.

Here's a bit of advice:

Keep expectations low.

You may not fall asleep during your nap — or at least you may not think you have — and that’s OK, Dr. Mednick said. We are often “somewhat conscious” in the early stages of sleep, she said, but “it’s still good rest.”

She pointed to a recent study that found that drifting into the lightest stage of sleep — a sort of twilight zone where your mind wanders in a dreamlike way — for even one minute during a 20-minute rest generated more creativity and better problem-solving in young adults.

Get comfortable.

Settle into a quiet place where you’re unlikely to be interrupted, and put your phone on airplane mode, Dr. Wu said. If you’re lucky enough to have an office or access to a nap room, consider keeping a pillow, eye mask and earplugs at work, said Jessica Payne, a professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame.

Then, try to tune into your five senses to “get out of your head and into your body,” Dr. Wu said, and let your breathing slow and deepen. “That allows the sleep to come to you.”

There's more advice, all of which makes sense.

Napping is yet another aspect of controlling behavioral mode, which is one of the most important things we need to master.