Katie McManus explains why daytime naps matter for brain function, especially for people with ADHD. Insufficient sleep damages how your brain works, and short naps during the day can help restore it.
I want to just come out of the closet and name that I am a recovering I'll sleep when I'm dead kind of person. I used to rob myself of sleep at every chance I got. I would constantly burn the candle at both ends. I would stay up late, I would get up early, and then I would crash and burn on the weekends and all weekend I would just have to recover from killing myself at work and killing myself having fun and doing all these different things and not getting enough sleep. Getting enough sleep is one of the best things you can do for your brain. Studies have shown that your brain actually doesn't have like a waste removal system like the rest of your body does. The only time your brain is actually able to declutter and get rid of dead cells. Anything that's problematic is while you're sleeping. It's the only time. So literally, if you're not giving yourself enough sleep, and I'm talking seven to nine hours, and those of us with adhd, we actually need more sleep than neurotypicals because our brains work harder throughout the day. If we're not getting enough sleep. I want you to imagine like, like a city dump and people are dropping off garbage and dropping off garbage and it's just sitting there and it's not being moved off site. Like that's what's happening in your brain. It's becoming a disgusting, clogged up, smelly mess. And the people who work there wanna quit. That's what happens in your brain when you don't get enough sleep.