Why you should Sleep In, Take Naps, Hit Snooze, and Really Just Sleep As Much as Possible

​Ah, sleep is one of the best feelings man.

I mean think about it. When you wake up, how many times are you like “No, I just wanna stay in bed. It’s so warm and cozy.”?


Like you just want to continue that sleep.






Sleep is the second best thing in bed that makes me feel so euphoric and serene.



We’re gonna give an ode to sleep today and take a look at some studies and fun little anecdotes that show how awesome it is.

You wouldn’t let your phone run out of battery, you normally panic and run to a charger ASAP before it hits dead zero. You oughta jump in bed and get some rest as if it’s just as much as an emergency as charging your phone.

Cats nap throughout the day and they always land on their feet, so maybe they’re onto something.

Sloths are animals that literally just sleep all day and look, they’ve managed to survive through centuries of evolution. They even out lived “go-getter” hardworking predators, like the 20 foot alligator that had long legs and could gallop at full speed.( Literally, they were *too* efficient at killing that they ran out of prey to eat.)




You should sleep as much as possible and do it whenever and wherever you want, with no shame.

Embrace your inner sloth and sleep like it's your goddamn job.

A study from the University of Michigan  actually concluded that naps during the job are quintessential to productivity and emotional control.





More naps, less stress

People that take naps are not as easily frustrated or bothered. They don’t get caught up in drama; they’re relaxed and laid back -- as a procrastin8r should be.

If you have a cranky boss or bitch co-worker, it’s probably because they aren’t taking enough naps (and they’re probably also diagnosed with assholiphrenia but that’s another story)

“staying awake for an extended period of time hinders people from controlling negative emotional responses,” said Jennifer Goldschmied, University of Michigan






Boost your focus, creativity, and productivity with a lil nap

In the study, people that took a nap were able to focus on tedious tasks for longer than their non-napping counterparts.

Naps were found to be" enhancing the ability to persevere through difficult or frustrating tasks”

Nappers were also able to generate ideas more efficiently in creative tasks and overall slam out better productivity.

So the next time you fall asleep during work or class, just tell your boss or teacher that  you’re trying to be as productive as possible.

In Japan, they literally encourage falling asleep during work. Napping in the day time is seen as a sign of diligence.

So exercise your due diligence and take a nap.

Other cultures like in Spain have the tradition of having a “Siesta”, a mid afternoon nap.

Only here in America do we seem to try to run humans like machines, fueled by coffee, which we’ll get to.










Remember, remember


You may not always remember your dreams (and the ones I do are quite bizarre), but getting enough sleep can enhance your memory in the waking life.


Why study when you can just sleep?


Study for a little bit then take a nap and you’ll have a better chance at retaining that information than if you “pull an all-nighter” trying to memorize as much information as possible.

And you could always just drop out if you don't feel like taking tests to begin with.





Dream about losing weight, literally


Lack of sleep throws your hormones that regulate appetite out of whack. Forget all the crazy ass diets that require all these charts and meal prep, learning new recipes and reading boring nutrition information.

Just sleep and you’ll increase your metabolism and lessen your hunger, which is key to losing weight.





The Zzz Diet








Prevent depression with a dose of 40 winks

Stress leads to anxiety and anxiety leads to depression, so by doing something, say napping, that lowers your stress, you are therefore lowering your chance at developing a severe case of depression.

Of course one of the symptoms of depression is sleeping too much. Go figure.





When your depressed, your brain is working hard with anxiety and you need to calm it down with laziness. You also need to stop giving a fuck about things that go wrong and  say "mistakes are meh"

Depression is a serious topic that I’d like to dive in further though at some point and apply it to the Lazy Mindset, maybe share my story of how I got out of it.







Sleep On It

How many times have you heard that phrase?



Whenever you have a big decision to make , you may be told to just "sleep on it" This will give you time for your brain to process all the information and rest so you can make the decision in a refreshed and relaxed state of mind.


Likewise, if you're experiencing "writer's block", you can use sleep to gain some creative energy.


"Yesterday" by the Beatles, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, and the "Every Breath You Take" by the Police to name a few hit songs that were written...while sleeping. The artists claim the inspiration came from their dreams.


If you have a big decision to make or project to work on, don't jump on it right away. Sleep on it.






Mmm...Coffee

Well all you coffee lovers are gonna love this. A caffeine nap.

But before we get into what that is. Let's take a moment, a little tangent, to just examine the bizarre culture around caffeine. Caffeine is the only legal drug in America that’s widely accepted fully and completely-- to the point where you can grab a cup from nearly every office break room or purchase it from every corner at your local convenience store.


There’s really no stigma against it. Any other drug or even marijuana or alcohol has *some* type of back lash for its consumption.



People might raise eye brows if you light up a joint or drink some scotch or whiskey too early in the morning.

But...

Drink coffee without any sort of stigma, even a little bit,  ANY TIME OF DAY, morning, evening, doesn't matter and that’s completely okay.


Despite the fact that caffeine is more dangerous than a lot of other substances, especially weed. It can cause muscle tremors, anxiety, permanent heart damage, insomnia, high blood pressure, digestive issues, and even bladder and kidney failure.





But ya know, “gotta have muh cuppa joe”.  People are real addicted to the stuff man. 


It’s the only “psychoactive” drug that's accepted by the mainstream. It’s really like Speed Jr. only it’s socially acceptable. It’s as acceptable as drinking tap water (unless you’re in Flint)


Probably because it keeps people energetic enough to work grueling hours, but we’re not gonna use it to work grueling hours, we’re gonna use it to rejuvenate.


And by the way, I’m just pointing out the bizarre nature of our culture and not hating on it. I mean damn, do I love me some WaWa Cuban Roast coffee. I just feel other substances should be as accepted as caffeine, considering how dangerous it is or whatever. It's no more or less dangerous than other drugs and has no more ore less psychoactive effects as other drugs.



They say America runs on Dunkin. False. Only parts of the country that lack WaWa run on Dunkin.WaWa. I know sounds like a silly name, but it’s freaking beast! It’s like a *gourmet* 7-11 basically, for those of you not in the Northeast.

Many people drink a cuppa joe “to wake up” in the morning, but we  procrastin8rs use it to rejuvenate our energy. Maximize results.

Caffeine doesn’t typically “kick in” until after about 10-20 minutes after you drink it, which is perfect for a power nap.


Instead of waiting for the energy burst to hit ya, take a short little nap instead.

When you wake up, you’ll feel refreshed from the nap aaaaand you’ll get the kick from the caffeine around the same time. So you’ll be like, basically super human at that point.







I’ve got the power!

The premise behind a  power nap is to hit the “Goldilocks” zone of your sleep cycle.

You want to sleep “just long enough” so that you get a good rest, but not so long that you enter a deep sleep and wind up waking up all groggy like you’re hungover after a night of downing shots of rum and tequila.




20 minutes is typically the sweet spot, but this varies from person to person. Some people are not even able to do these power naps and just wind up staring blankly at the ceiling at the whole time.

If you can pull it off though, you get the benefits of sleep, without the downside of wasting hours or feeling groggy.

You may need to sleep longer or shorter to “feel the power”

This is a good little card to play when you feel yourself getting drowsy at 3 AM playing Rocket League and wanna make it through a few more rounds or maybe  “just one more level” in Runescape or maybe even do a few surveys online for pay, whatever.

It’s recommended to take a nap in a dark quiet place, but basically wherever you’re comfortable and wanna doze off is good.












A Full “Night’s” Rest is whenever (and wherever) you want.


Of course power naps, siestas, cat naps, and other mid-day naps can only get you so far.

Nothing compares to a full R.E.M deep 40 winks sleep. It works wonders on your brain ,greatly enhancing your physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

The benefits of being well rested are pure conquest. It can increase memory, productivity, metabolism, and emotional control, as we already covered.

Games like Fallout and World of Warcraft take a prompt from Real Life and add a temporary boost to your stats when your character is “Well-Rested”



The word "night" is optional, by the way.  You don't have to sleep at night. You can sleep whenever you want, as long as you get to that "Well-Rested" status.

I am definitely NOT a morning person, or a go to bed by 10 and wake up at 6 type dude. I prefer staying up to the wee hours of the morning and waking up late afternoon and sometimes early evening.







Hit that Snooze

The Snooze Button is my best friend. I slap that baby like  4 or 5 times before facing the fact that I have to get up.






My reaction to an alarm is not to get up and out of bed. Instead, it’s: “Just five more minutes”

There isn’t a specific study I could find that examines the specific effects of “hitting snooze”

However, according to Business Insider, David Dinges, chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine says that The extra 10 minutes you get by snoozing can actually help to gently awaken the mind, rather than jolt it back to wakefulness”




On the other hand, Jeanne Duffy, a neuroscientist and sleep researcher at Harvard Medical School suggests that by snoozing after your alarm, you risk entering “sleep inertia”, a state of grogginess that last up to 30 minutes after waking up.

Essentially hitting that snooze means either feeling brand spanking new or like you’ve been slammed by a truck.

I would surmise from this that it is good to snooze, but you have to find the right amount of length in time that works for you.











Gotta catch up on on ‘em all


Some studies insist that NO, you can NEVER catch up on sleep.

While others say, well, yes, actually you can.

Is sleep like student loan debt that can be repaid eventually? Can you catch up on sleep?

Who knows?

With varying results from different studies, the data is rather inconclusive.


All I know is that if I personally pull all nighters saying to myself “just one more level” or “just one more episode” and feel tired all week for doing so, but later decide to sleep in until the early evening on the weekend, I feel totally refreshed and well-rested.

I think catching up on sleep works in some cases but not all.  Not everyone can "catch up" on sleep and some need a consistent pattern.

And I do think it depends on how much sleep you “owe” to yourself. Like, it may take a few days of playing “catch up” before really feeling like you don’t severely lack any sleep.

But take my totally non expert opinion with a grain of salt. I'm just a lazy dude that enjoys sleeping in and also catching up on sleep if I stay up too late playing video games.








It's YOUR Sleep!


The takeaway here is to sleep when you want, where you want, and not be pressured to meet someone else's sleeping schedule.

Do things on your terms. Sleep on your terms.


Create a life where you sleep in as late as you want and don’t have a boss hollering at you when you do finally get up.

I’ll end it with a quote from an actual expert:

According to Time Magazine, Dr. Sara Mednick, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life.  says  “Everyone’s different. If you feel good, whatever you’re doing is fine.”



Now I’m pretty tired after all this writing, so I’m gonna go take a nap.

Take it easy,

N8