Hacker News Reader

Comment by heelhook | Hacker News Reader

When I sleep a bit during the day I wake up feeling more tired than I was before. If I do sleep my productivity goes way down, I do find I'm much more productive when I go play racketball or something like that for a while. Am I the only one like that?

View on HN

It's dependent on how much sleep you normally get, your individual circadian rhythm, the quality and duration of your nap, whether or not you are prone to sleeping disorders, your biochemistry, and other factors.

There have been times where a five minute nap leaves me completely refreshed and revitalized. Other times, it makes things worse. I'm not certain, but I suspect that the times it has been worse is partially a result of chronic sleep deprivation, such as going a week or two on five hours a night. In those cases, 20 minutes doesn't make an appreciable dent in the deficit.

Am I the only one like that?

Absolutely not! If I sleep during the day I wake up tired, irritable and generally a useless mess. The duration seems to make no difference, be it 20 min or 2 hours.

For me, it is 15 minutes or two hours. If I drop in the middle, I might as well be two hours. But 15 minutes can make a HUGE difference.

That's the trick. I find having a coffee and then closing my eyes for 15 minutes leaves me more relaxed yet full of so much more energy than before to take me through the rest of the day.

Sleeping during the day doesn't work for me either. What does work however is watching a show or half of a movie. Just so I don't sleep, but my brain is able to shut down and loosely concentrate on something other than work.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com