Viva La Siesta!

Spanish though the word is, Italians are the ones who popularised the concept of siesta or commonly known as afternoon nap.

Most of us are aware of the importance of 8 hour sleep in life. This is important for us in learning as well, and we will discuss this in future posts, on how to cash in on all precious 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Though for now let us assume you are struggling to fit in 8 hours in to your sleeping time. The body will get its rest by hook or by crook, and you know what this means, the one who fall asleep standing in subway trains, cars, cabs planes, rickshaws, side walks and.. ....wait, why are you looking at me like that, no I am not kidding, and no I am not over exaggerating either. oh al-right.. here take a look at this.

and this..

Well of course hard working professionals supporting families and in pressure to maintain their end of projects and deadlines face this all the time, and we face the pressure to do so often, for some its even their professional way of life.

But you get the picture of what happens when someone is sleep deprived, like literally..right? We take these risks because we think we are doing the best we can, which most of the time we are.

So lets us discuss the concept of siesta. Unlike the scenario in the above pictures, siesta is a natural nap cycle that exists in us. The body requires this in addition to the 7 - 8 hours of regular sleep.

Siesta lasts for about 20 to 30 minutes in the afternoon, which we experience inevitably as post lunch yawning marathon. Around 3 pm to be precise. It may vary from person to person, but the general time zone is around 3.

So what we do, even I fall in to the category of get a cup of coffee and get to work or meeting scheduled. Other wise we risk loosing out employment. Sleep and naps are designed for the brain to shut down from outside world and concentrate on what it has learnt till now from a few hours or a day before. A nap helps energize brain. I know that now as I have been trying it for past 3 weeks and it has results. But I need to emphasis on the fact that the nap can not exceed 30 minutes or else the brain gets in to full on sleep mode and we end up waking grumpy like we do in mornings.

In fact, those naps in the cabs and subways are also refreshing, provided that you hadn't skipped sleep all together the previous night, or else be ready for a drowsy dull day ahead. 

So how does one incorporate or tackle the siesta time. 

1) Take the 30 minute nap or reduce it to 15 min power nap even. Sure this might sound ridiculous now, but you need to create your schedule around it. Once you train to just rest and go in for a total nap and gradually get the napping practice.

2) Do not schedule meetings or heavy load of work during this time. Get to your current deadline, but from now on make sure you do not promise any projects are assignments to be submitted around this time, where  you will be running to comply wit the deadline.Margin of errors also increases. And we know that is exactly what gets us in to trouble and pushes all our hard work down the drain.

3) Students have much more flexibly of avoiding tasks at this time than working professionals, so take a break during this time and nap away. For professionals, take the break, and take time to shut down for few minutes, try deep breathing excesses which are already part of your ADHD coping mechanisms. Remember that errors cause more damage than slightly delayed submission. Late submission will be forgotten if your work is flawless. 

Observing your sleep pattern and working in tandem with them is much more beneficial than working agaist them and pushing your body. 

Remember, a Ferrari is made to run on smooth roads and not on murky roads with water puddles. Forcing the Ferrari will only result in damaging result.