Comment by magicalhippo
2 years ago
I recall watching a documentary on Discovery way back, where they followed some multiday ultramaraton competitors. They'd draw blood samples, measure vitals and have them answer mental acuity questionnaires each time they stopped for food or sleep.
The competitors limited themselves to power naps, max 30 minutes though often just ten minutes.
The scientist found that all the physical adverse effects of sleep deprivation were negated by the short power naps. Though IIRC the mental acuity did drop some as the event progressed.
Been at least 15 years since I saw the program so might misrember some parts, but I clearly recall the physical effects of the power naps.
Keep in mind these were quite fit athletes though.
>The scientist found that all the physical adverse effects of sleep deprivation were negated by the short power naps.
we don't even know if the "brain cleaning so, longterm, you don't get dementia" hypothesis is true, and here you/they are saying "we know it's false for these people".
nah, fam.
By physical I meant primarily the body. As I mentioned the cofnitive fuctions did start to suffer somewhat. Though they had quite short naps.
> The scientist found that all the physical adverse effects of sleep deprivation were negated by the short power naps. Though IIRC the mental acuity did drop some as the event progressed.
I assume you mixed these up?
There's two well-known extreme sleep schedules (Uberman 6x20m or Dymaxion 4x30m) that let you subsist on two hours of sleep a day, because you drop into REM sleep immediately. This however only clears up "brain fog". If you would do exercise on these sleep schedules, you would make little progress because muscle repair happens outside of REM sleep.
Pretty sure I did not. But it was related to blood pressure, stress markers in blood and such as I recall it.
> power nap
I assume they weren't drinking coffee at every stop, do you remember what they did before napping ? (the "power" part)
Power nap meaning getting up after 10-15 minutes, 30 minutes max.
The idea being that after 30 minutes other processes in the body kick in, so you feel much worse if you woke up after an hour.
That said, they usually did get some food, a bar or some hot stew IIRC. Though can't recall if they did that before or after the nap.