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Comment by simple10 | Hacker News Reader

Rather than naps, I can personally recommend yoga nidra, AKA non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) meditation. There's no effort involved. You just lie down and listen to an audio track. Lots of tracks available on YouTube and Spotify. With yoga nidra, you stay awake and get just as recharged from a good nap but without the risk of waking up groggy. It's a game changer.

If you're interested in the science behind it, Andrew Huberman often talks about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rSOn0PurVc

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This is my favorite yoga nidra track on spotify (30 min):

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LXBzjxhdJDFiW2CWINGb3

And here's a shorter one (10 min) from Andrew Huberman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKGrmY8OSHM

> With yoga nidra, you stay awake

Huh I precisely use yoga nidra TO help me fall asleep.

It's so powerful as a sleep aid that I resurrected an old iPod to hold a single yoga nidra track and I keep it plugged into a speaker on my nightstand. Of the maybe 200+ listens in the past few years I've heard the end of of this 20min track less than 10 times!

Nice! And good point. It works for both sleep and non-sleep power "nap."

There are different scripts for sleep vs mid-day rest. The main difference seems to be whether or not you set the intention to stay awake or fall asleep at the start of it.

Interesting, I shall try this for rest as I hate naps - they leave me miserable.

Andrew Huberman, the same guy who panders chewing on a rubber ball to change your “face shape”?

Yeah, the same guy who "heard from a cardiologist buddy" of his that 'no amount of exercise offsets the damage of sitting for 6-7 hours a days' (absolute bullshit icydk).

you’re mocking his weak references but you’re not offering one yourself

I think it's completely fine to be extremely skeptical of, and yes even outright mock, the idea that sitting for 6 hours a day does permanent, irreparable damage to the body until proven otherwise. It's also probably fine to be skeptical-bordering-on-mocking of people who use sources that sound authoritative to push something controversial. It's really hard to become a cardiologist. They know a great deal about a lot of things, but you know what they typically don't know anything about? Exercise. They're not physical therapists, they're not exercise physiologists, they don't have PhDs in kinesiology.

Sitting is bad for you, sure. But some random guy's random cardiologist friend likely knows less about exercise science than a $50/hr personal trainer at your local Gold's.

> You just lie down and listen to an audio track.

> you stay awake

Yeah... If I lie down, I will not be staying awake.

Perhaps you have to choose the audio track such that you don't fall asleep.

Yes, the track matters. A good track for non-sleep deep rest will have you set an intention not to fall asleep and then keep your mind busy doing a body scan. I was the same way... skeptical I'd stay awake. But it actually works.

Try this track https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LXBzjxhdJDFiW2CWINGb3

Note that you shouldn't be groggy if you limit your naps to less than 20 minutes.

But, how do you limit your naps to 20 minutes? What if it takes 19 minutes to fall asleep and then your alarm goes off after 1 minute of sleep?

Sometimes you know how long you usually need to fall asleep, for me it's 5-10 min or I am not falling asleep (for a nap). So I set the timer to 35min.

> What if it takes 19 minutes to fall asleep and then your alarm goes off after 1 minute of sleep?

That's a successful nap.

IME there's not much difference between 1 minute of sleep and 15 minutes. Both give me a similar recharge. I think a large part of it is relaxing enough to actually fall asleep.

https://www.livescience.com/little-known-sleep-stage-may-be-...

It's why meditation apps can be so useful, there are so many options in the 10-20 minute range and you feel much better than trying to time a nap and setting a horrible alarm sound to wake you up.

Most of them also have nice endings, in that they encourage you to stretch or something of the sort to "wake up" from your meditation.

About yoga nidra : wikipedia tells us about a n=1 study[0] that found NREM sleep waves during yoga nidra, it seems that if this generalize, it would be equivalent to taking a nap [0]: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.10.016

Why you need to follow specific techniques just to relax? They sound like more work and skill obsession.

You know, you can just lay low and relax...

Why read a science book when you can, you know, just figure it out?

Yoga is a tradition honed over millennia, it's weird to assume that your first swag at the topic is just as good.

You don't need to learn any new techniques. That's why NSDR / yoga nidra is useful. You just listen to a track. No breathing techniques or anything required. Same idea I guess as listening to music for productivity or workouts. Do you need it? Nope. But it helps.

For many of us, just laying down to "relax" tends mean either scrolling through news, or closing our eyes and getting lost in racing thoughts while trying to resist the urge to take out our phone scroll through news...

Obviously, that's not great, so strategies to relax more naturally can be really helpful.

Saying "just relax, it's natural" is like saying "just be a marathon runner, it's natural". Both may be true, but in 2023 it can take some work and help for us to get back to those natural abilities.

There's a reason mindfulness and meditation is a thing people do for mental health. If we could all easily just, you know, chill out, then a lot of issues people face with anxiety and stress wouldn't exist :)

Like how the simple recipe for happiness is "stop being sad"

One time, after sleeping only 3 hours, I held a rope on someone's backpack, and hiked 2 hours with my eyes closed, just following them (and stumbling). I even conversed the whole time and hiked 4 more hours, and afterwards I felt rested enough to finish the day.

Not saying you're wrong, but isn't it strange to respond to an article that attempts to answer a question by summarizing several scientific studies, with something akin to "ignore that, do this instead"?

Good point. I didn't provide context in my comment. Just trying to be helpful. The studies in the article show naps improve several factors like alertness. Anecdotally, many people either have a hard time falling asleep mid day or fall asleep for too long and wake up groggy. Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) has the same benefits of napping without the downsides. I believe there are studies on it, but I don't have references handy. Just speaking from personal experience.

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