Is It Nap Time Yet?
I stayed up too late last night. In fact, I haven't had a decent night's sleep in a while now. Mostly because I'm a night owl living in an early bird world, and going to bed at 9:30 is painful to me even when I know I have to get up at 5:30. But also because I didn't sleep restfully while on spring break vacation to Kansas1 because of a stinky hotel room, and then continued to not go to bed on time when I returned, which means today I'm exhausted.
It's made me think a lot about early morning culture (especially in schools) and nap/siesta culture. I understand why the early birds have control of the world; no wasting daylight if you get up early. And for ages there wasn't a good way to light the darkness like we can now, so the daylight had to be used in order to get things done. Not only that, but the ubiquitousness of coffee means even if someone is a night owl or didn't get enough sleep, they can still be stimulated enough to functionality. I don't drink coffee, or anything with caffeine really, so I'm at even more disadvantage compared to everyone else when it comes to mornings.
But in my research about siestas in particular, I learned more about the research behind sleep and napping, and it is fascinating. According to what I've read2, as soon as you wake up the body starts building a pressure to sleep. Then, in the afternoon your circadian rhythm triggers a wakefulness mode (sometimes call the second wind). But if you haven't had enough or good enough sleep, or your rhythm skews later (like it does for night owls) then there is a gap where the pressure for sleep is strong and the wakefulness mode hasn't triggered yet.
I want to dig into this more through better research, but it feels like I've found the reason I'm always tired until 2pm, especially after not getting enough sleep. And if I've found the reason, then I can figure out a way to manage it.