Scrap the nap: Study shows short naps don’t relieve sleep deprivation

A nap during the day won’t restore a sleepless night, says the latest study from Michigan State University’s Sleep and Learning Lab.

“We are interested in understanding cognitive deficits associated with sleep deprivation. In this study, we wanted to know if a short nap during the deprivation period would mitigate these deficits,” said Kimberly Fenn, associate professor of MSU, study author and director of MSU’s Sleep and Learning Lab. “We found that short naps of 30 or 60 minutes did not show any measurable effects.”

The study was published in the journal Sleep and is among the first to measure the effectiveness of shorter naps — which are often all people have time to fit into their busy schedules.

“While short naps didn’t show measurable effects on relieving the effects of sleep deprivation, we found that the amount of slow-wave sleep that participants obtained during the nap was related to reduced impairments associated with sleep deprivation,” Fenn said.

Slow-wave sleep, or SWS, is the deepest and most restorative stage of sleep. It is marked by high amplitude, low frequency brain waves and is the sleep stage when your body is most relaxed; your muscles are at ease, and your heart rate and respiration are at their slowest.

“SWS is the most important stage of sleep,” Fenn said. “When someone goes without sleep for a period of time, even just during the day, they build up a need for sleep; in particular, they build up a need for SWS. When individuals go to sleep each night, they will soon enter into SWS and spend a substantial amount of time in this stage.”

Fenn’s research team – including MSU colleague Erik Altmann, professor of psychology, and Michelle Stepan, a recent MSU alumna currently working at the University of Pittsburgh - recruited 275 college-aged participants for the study.

The participants completed cognitive tasks when arriving at MSU’s Sleep and Learning Lab in the evening and were then randomly assigned to three groups: The first was sent home to sleep; the second stayed at the lab overnight and had the opportunity to take either a 30 or a 60 minute nap; and the third did not nap at all in the deprivation condition.

The next morning, participants reconvened in the lab to repeat the cognitive tasks, which measured attention and placekeeping, or the ability to complete a series of steps in a specific order without skipping or repeating them — even after being interrupted.

“The group that stayed overnight and took short naps still suffered from the effects of sleep deprivation and made significantly more errors on the tasks than their counterparts who went home and obtained a full night of sleep,” Fenn said. “However, every 10-minute increase in SWS reduced errors after interruptions by about 4%.”

These numbers may seem small but when considering the types of errors that are likely to occur in sleep-deprived operators — like those of surgeons, police officers or truck drivers — a 4% decrease in errors could potentially save lives, Fenn said.

“Individuals who obtained more SWS tended to show reduced errors on both tasks. However, they still showed worse performance than the participants who slept,” she said.

Fenn hopes that the findings underscore the importance of prioritizing sleep and that naps — even if they include SWS — cannot replace a full night of sleep.

That moment when you try to use your calculator but realize you’re actually using your phone’s keypad.

straight-to-the-pain:

Small signs of suffering

I love those little things that give away clues as to what happened to the whumpee in captivity.

Bruises on their knees from having to kneel on something hard, red marks around their wrists from the restraints, their eyes red from lack of sleep, their hair damp with sweat…

The whumpee doesn’t need to say anything, because the signs of their suffering are painted clearly on their body.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26748730/chapters/66335668

Prompt: What’s a Whumpee Gotta do to Get Some Sleep Around Here?, Exhaustion, Narcolepsy, Sleep Deprivation

Fandom/OC: Original Work

TW: swearing, starvation, dehydration, cult mention, broken bones, rape mention, blood, gore

@whumptober2020​

When the caretaker is watching the whumpee, and they notice that they seem a little paler than usual, but they’re only mildly concerned, until they see the whumpee suddenly go even paler and start to sway. The caretaker rushing to the whumpee and steadying them, looking around for somewhere for the whumpee to sit, but the whumpee passing out in their hold before they can find somewhere. The caretaker gently guiding the whumpee to the ground, and laying them down with their head in the caretaker’s lap. The whumpee coming back to consciousness a minute later, and the caretaker giving them a few moments to get their bearings, then asking if they know why they passed out. The whumpee admitting that they’d barely been sleeping, and the caretaker giving them a disapproving look, then gently helping them sit up. The caretaker giving them a few moments, and then pulling them up to standing, and gently helping them get to somewhere they can get some proper rest.

When the caretaker notices that the whumpee is looking a little bit pale, but they think nothing of it until the whumpee starts to sway during a conversation. The caretaker starting to reach out to steady them, and then having to lunge to catch them as they crumple to the ground. The caretaker having no idea why the whumpee passed out, but gently getting them onto the floor, and settling the whumpee’s head in their lap. The whumpee coming to as the caretaker checks their pulse and tries to figure out why they passed out, and the caretaker asking if they know why. The whumpee admitting that they’d been feeling a little under the weather, and hadn’t been getting much sleep, and the caretaker gently scooping them up and carrying them to bed, then making them stay there until they think the whumpee is okay.

aestheticofanartist:

Does anyone else’s ADHD symptoms get worse when you’re really tired? Like, my brain literally stops functioning after 11.

Some of the parts of your brain that are “impaired” by adhd are also impaired by sleep deprivation.

This means that if you have adhd AND are sleep deprived… like go to bed man today is a write-off…

A ceiling fan twirls above the Whumpee, creating a blurred halo above them as the Caretaker looks up at them from the floor. The Caretaker coughs and still struggles to take in a breath after having been hit repeatedly by the Whumpee in their chest and stomach. The Whumpee clenches and unclenches their fist, staring at the door leading into the room they’re both in. Their shirt is stained with fresh sweat, and they wipe a bloodied knuckle across their forehead. “What’s it been, now?” the Caretaker asks from the floor. The Whumpee looks down at them with eyes that are both wild and glazed. “Where did you come from?” they ask the Caretaker, looking at them like a bear rug that is slowly coming to life as they squirm and struggle to get to their knees. Their fists stay clenched as the Caretaker lifts themselves up, nursing an arm across their bruised body. The Whumpee looks them up and down, still not able to wrap their brain around the reality in front of them. “It’s a dream, isn’t it?” the Whumpee asks. The Caretaker drops their head, and the ceiling fan above them slows as the whole world does too. When the Caretaker finally lifts their head, the face of the Whumper is on it instead. They close the distance between themselves and the Whumpee with an uncanny speed and grab them by the throat, pushing them back into a mirror hung on the wall. “What’s it been?” the vision of the Whumper repeats the Caretaker’s words almost fondly as they press the Whumpee hard enough into the mirror that it now cracks. When the Whumper eases up slightly, the mirror teeters on its nail but then falls with a crash behind them. The Whumpee shuts their eyes at the noise, but when they open them, they are looking at the worried face of the Caretaker kneeling next to them on the ground. The Whumpee’s breath heaves in their chest as they try and orient themselves, looking around for proof of anything they had just seen or done. No shattered mirror surrounds them - only the fan spins overhead as the Caretaker asks kindly: “How long’s it been since you got some sleep?” The Whumpee studies their friend for a moment before pulling them in for a desperate hug, unable to recall where reality ended and the hallucinations started.

I really don’t mean to cut everyone off, believe me

it happens

it’s not in my control

I can’t even control my own life

how could I control my friends

Does the world have sum against me cuz being on the internet and playing games r literally my only escape from my own thoughts rn who let the internet speed be so fcking slow too like you want me to kms or sum

i stayed up all night working on this playlist. i’m going to sleep now. here’s a sleeping playlist i made. the songs on there are soft and slow. feel free to check it out and give it listen.

https://open.spotify.com/user/rbk1vmaqm8j2ihb3smdd387y1/playlist/5Hik0YaGZ3XQWuHZ6WR3u0?si=fRAN7nLoTe2ub7ReXtuGYw

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 3AM playlist to sleep to.*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

I have never felt more like season 5 Chris Traeger than right now

The time just runs, but I feel every moment desappeares.

I am all that you need, but not what you want.

I’m so fuckin alone in this fuckin world.

if i cry once more tonight may aswell class me as a fucking water fountain.

Your whumpee is so tired they start hallucinating figures from their past… as it continues on, recent friends also join the mirages to torment A during their isolation. 

The torturer keeps A awake for as long as possible; delighting in the terrified delusions and erratic behaviour occurring within the cell. 

I hate that I’m always so alone, especially on nights like this where my depression gets the best of me and suddenly I realize how alone I am. I dont have anyone to turn to when this happens, I don’t have people who are actually there for me. No one ever knows what to do and I just feel like even more of a burden. I feel like a burden all the time and I dont know how to reach out to people when I feel like the world is coming down around me and it feels like the only thing that will make it stop is just to stop existing. I dont want to feel alone. I just want to be able to connect to other people without feeling like theres something wrong with me, like I’m broken.

My mental health has never been worse and I’m crying alone at 2am bc I don’t have people there for me and I don’t know how to change that.

You love them with all of your heart. They leave you broken in pieces. They force you to watch as they move on, never to be whole again.

A break from life would be nice. Especially if it were a never ending one.

Im not someone who thinks a lot about suicide but the picture keeps crossing my mind tho.

It’s been really bad lately and my urge to self harm is increasing with every day that I lay in bed and can’t sleep. I don’t know how long I will be able to take this anymore. My anxiety is high , my depression is dark, my mental health zero. It’s getting bad. Like fucking bad.

I don’t want to be in that dark narrow place again. I know what it is like to be there. I don’t like it. But the road is never ending and the finish line seems to be there. It’s really hard to be holding on to that little light that is left but slowly is vanishing.

I’m tired, exhausted, Empty, numb and in pain. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way, but still it’s hard feeling this way not knowing what to do to feel better , I mean at least being able to not feel guilty about everything and nothing. I would get help , but at the moment there is no way I’m getting the help I need.

Right now i just want to be sure I’ll wake up tomorrow morning. Or not. I don’t even know.

That’s the point. I’m confused if I want to live or not. I don’t wanna die. But living is painful. So what do I want. I don’t know if I have the strength to keep going and constantly feel like I’m suffocating and drowning trying to scream but instead my lungs fill up with water and I’m no longer able to breath.

But i don’t know if I have the strength to let go once and for all, leaving my mom and my loved ones behind either. It’s difficult because I want to keep going but the is just no more energy left for doing so.

I’m carrying a bag of stones. Stones I carry with me all day long and when I’m at home I finally break down because I can’t take that weight.

When I lay in bed the only thing I feel is a weight on my chest that makes me breath heavily and panic.

Im alone. I can’t talk to anyone. The first question I get is „why“. Oh god if I knew why. That’s a question I ask myself a lot. „Why me?“ „why now?“ „why again?“ „why is this happening?“. I have no answer to that question. It makes me anxious getting that question and not having an explanation. How can I reach out for help if I do not have any reason to feel the way I do.

I don’t understand. And so don’t the others.

They don’t understand my struggle. I have a home, family, friends, food,.. more than a lot of people on this planet have and yet I feel lost, lonely and empty. Somebody that did not feel those things and this darkness can not understand how it feels. They can not understand how tiring living is.

They can not understand how difficult it is to put on a mask everyday so nobody asks you “what’s wrong?” And so you don’t have to answer with “I don’t know.” That’s the point. Again. I don’t know what’s wrong. Too much is wrong with me. And then they go like “no seriously, there must be something that causes this”. And that’s upsetting. Because I would want to know what’s wrong.

It’s exhausting and tiring.

I don’t want to bother anyone or be a burden because that’s how I feel. That’s what I am for me.

I want to go out. I want to have fun. I want to live. I want to be able to be at peace with my mind and myself. It’s just not that easy.

3liza:

3liza:

one of the most enlightening realizations ive had was finding out that non-24 hour circadian rhythm people were a pretty large group and most of us have oddly similar cycles of usually around 28hr internal “days” and this masquerades as “insomnia” but if allowed to sleep and wake naturally we will just advance forward through time an extra 2-4 hours a day at a relatively stable pace. we can’t go to school or jobs or even run errands on normal schedules without massive pharmacological and behavioral intervention. most of the people who have been diagnosed or figured it out themselves will report horrific, life-ruining disruption in their professional lives and terrible health from accrued lack of sleep. this disorder is most common in vision-impaired people which seems to suggest it’s related to light cues. anyway just thinking about this as extremely loud yard work woke me up at 8am for the second day in a row

lot of people reblogging this identifying themselves in it so i wanted to give you a link to a more detailed desription of Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder, and mention theres a similar disorder called Delayed Sleep Phase disorder where you are on a regular 24 hour cycle but you naturally get sleepy around 3-4am every day and wake up around 10am-12pm (roughly). as far as i can tell, despite the widespread nature of both these disorders, its basically impossible to get diagnosed bvecause sleep medicine is probably the single most useless specialty and if you dont have sleep apnea they dont want to hear about it.

I"m fascinated by the implication that our internal biological circadian clock is 28 hours.. is is possible that in the earth’s rotation/orbit used to be longer or slower???