Adenosine builds up while you're awake and makes you sleepy, so napping improves problem-solving and mood. Spain's siesta tradition might be ancestral rather than just cultural. A short nap with low light and something relaxing like reading works best.
How can you build up sleepiness by being out of the bed for a longer time, being more active? Because there's this substance in the brain called adenosine. And adenosine builds up when you're out of the bed and you're active. And this gives you more of a feeling of sleepiness, more of a feeling of being relaxed, actually. And it decreases the time that you're stressing out in the bed, awake. So if you're a good sleeper, then we know that napping can really give you a better way of solving problems. It can make you more alert, it can improve your mood.
When you go to a lot of cultures, like I was in Spain, it just seems built into society to nap. And I've wondered, like, does that come from some ancestral need? Is that more social? Just the idea of a siesta, shutting down businesses from 2 to 4pm like, why is it that you see that built into a lot of cultures?
I think. I think it would be a good thing to like watch a documentary or read a book, not to be in too bright light, because that can disrupt your biological clock, but do something that really relaxes you. And yeah, sometimes people read or they do a little puzzle, that kind of stuff.
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