Having trouble falling asleep is a very common experience. If it happens to you at nap time, it is no less frequent. In fact, research suggests that nearly a third of adults experience chronic insomnia , a sleep disorder characterized by persistent difficulties falling asleep or staying asleep. But what about when it comes to napping?
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and Princeton University in the US studied 50 people as they lay down for a 1:00 p.m. nap. They asked them to intentionally try tensing or tightening their muscles first before attempting to fall asleep peacefully. The idea was to tense specific muscles of the body, that is, make fists and squeeze them hard for 10 seconds and then relax them, for example. They also left a control group that was not given these muscle cues.
What was the results?
The researchers found that the two groups showed different brain rhythm patterns during sleep.
People who intentionally tensed and then relaxed their large muscle groups before falling asleep had 125% more deep sleep and an improved sleep pattern in their nap compared to those who listened to relaxing music, the experts found in their published study. in the Journal of Sleep Research .
“We found that those who engaged in muscle tensioning before sleep showed increased right-sided sleep brain rhythm activity early on , which we would expect to see in more rested individuals ,” said Katharine Simon, lead author of the research.
“Brain waves can be an indicator of how much restful sleep the brain needs,” the expert continues.
To tense muscles!
Therefore, this means that muscle tension before napping supported some of the restorative needs that sleep normally takes care of, showing that performing this practice can cause napping to lead to deeper sleep.
“It may provide restorative benefits before sleep that typically occur during sleep, and possibly allow sleep to focus its support on other functions, such as memory formation or emotional health,” Simon concludes.
Reference: Katharine C. Simon, Elizabeth A. McDevitt, Rocco Ragano, et al. Progressive muscle relaxation increases slow-wave sleep during a daytime nap. Journal of SleepResearch. First published: 30 March 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13574
