How to Take a Caffeine Nap | Hacker News Reader

How to Take a Caffeine Nap

feint.me

30 pointsfeint20 comments

I took "caffeine naps" all the time in college, usually just before all-nighters. Mind hacking was popular sport in the late 70's. I remember trying one or two "blotter naps", also. Good morning!!

Why mess so much with your sleep cycles? If you look at the long lives of souther mediterraneans you don't see any of this stuff. Instead: good diet, don't overwork, big naps.

In the Mediterranean especially were my Mum grew up in Italy, all the farmers, who live long lives took naps in the afternoon. This is a common practice all over the world

It is a more common occurrence in warmer climates (mexico and the siesta) and where the people undergo physical labor for work (such as farming).

No offense to the good people of the southern Mediterranean (I lived in Sicily for years), I'd like to accomplish more with my life than that. Not saying it's better or worse, just that it's my preference.

Sleep cycles are already messed up -- so this is a good way to make the best of a bad situation.

I have been out of work for all but 2 of the last 16 months. This have given me time to do some experimenting (among other things). One thing I did was to try to find the best dose of caffeine for me. I tried regular coffee, decaff, and coffee and caffeine pills; several times and in different orders. With as close to controlled conditions as one person alone could arrange, I discovered that caffeine has absolutely no effect on me. I could discern absolutely no difference in alertness, learning (read a textbook chapter and did test at end), or reaction time (simple video game). I already knew I didn't react strongly to caffeine, hence the experimenting, but the result was a surprise. Apparently all of the effects I had previously attributed to caffeine had been placebo.

He lost me at "sleep debt" I have to be honest. All the current research I've read suggests there is no such thing (unless he just means "your a bit tired" :) which he could well do).

Im not convinced this is a good idea though (I'd like to see a link to the research he cites - done a bit of digging but I cant find it offhand).

Better to wake yourself up with Orang Juice and exercise.

The research: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/310/6979/565

There is no such thing as a sleep debt in the sense that it accumulates over a week. You could go days without sleep and only need 8 hours to get back to perfect. However, in the course of a 24 hour period. If you only have 4 hours of sleep you obviously have a sleep debt of 3-4 hours and need to take a power nap or something

On an empty stomach I find that strong coffee affects me faster than 20 minutes. More like 5 or 10 minutes.

yeah that can happen. I've also noticed a slight psychosomatic effect - even straight after drinking coffee I feel more awake simply because I associate coffee with alertness

When I drink espresso, I usually feel the effect immediately. At least some of the caffeine must be resorbed in the mouth.

why not just take the caffeine after the nap and avoid the risk? Does waiting the additional 20 minutes for the caffeine to kick in really change the benefit?

The idea is that the caffeine will stop you from feeling drowsy when you wake up. Wheres the risk?

The risk is that if you want to fall asleep, but are unable to fall asleep within 20 minutes then the caffeine will have kicked in thus wasting your time trying to fall asleep

I don't agree, even an "awake nap" can be refreshing.

yes absolutely. Its only risky if you are a polypahisc sleeper and rely on these naps as part of your sleep

Also, just being a polyphasic sleeper is risky.

If you can't go almost right to sleep, then you weren't tired enough to need a nap in the first place. The only time I ever toss and turn is when I need to keep to a schedule and go to bed before I am fully tired out.

If you are already sleep-deprived, the risk is that you won't wake up, or wake up and decide to go back to sleep. The caffeine prevents taking too long of a nap.

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