siesta

Do you often feel groggy in the early afternoon? Me too. In fact, this afternoon energy dip is clear evidence that we’re both human.

It’s true. And what’s more, your human biology would love for you to honor that dip with a nice afternoon nap. But how can you when our modern lives are so deeply incompatible with these siesta dreams?

Luckily, a new solution to this vexing problem recently emerged. It goes by the name of asynchronous remote work, and, to those who embrace it, it offers something remarkable: life through a well-rested body and mind.

The Natural Human Sleep Pattern

Chapter four in Matthew Walker’s vital book on the science of sleep explores the wide range of sleep patterns observed within the animal kingdom. One of the animals investigated is a hairless ape called Homo sapiens.

Walker notes that a biphasic pattern containing an afternoon nap is the natural way for humans to sleep. It’s not a cultural thing. In fact, it’s deeply biological. Societies untouched by technology still sleep this way.

He also cites a Harvard study of 23,000 Greek adults around the time when the modern 9–5 grind was displacing siesta culture. Results showed a 37% increase in death from heart disease over the next six years for those who abandoned their siesta, 60% for working men. Another striking statistic he cites is that men in isolated Greek communities where the siesta remains intact are 4x more likely to live to 90 than the average American.

Indeed, our genes miss their afternoon nap.

Home Offices and Siestas

The humble siesta was no match for the irrepressible spread of the 9–5 workday across the Western world. It got swept aside and forgotten, leaving many office workers about as useful around 3 p.m. as if they were taking the nap their biology requires.

Decades passed. And then, a virus rose from the East to upend the world and force billions of minds to think differently.

Remote work was one of the biggest winners in this new world. For me, this development was so deeply beneficial that I feel downright guilty about it. As a simulation scientist, I’ve been pushing for the right to work more from home for years. Covid-19 fulfilled this wish in its entirety.

Part of my positive lockdown experience was the opportunity to try out the regular afternoon naps I had read about in Matthew Walker’s book. Initially, I napped on days without afternoon virtual meetings. Naturally, this random schedule was not ideal, but it was enough to draw me in.

After a couple of months of erratic napping, I finally came out of the siesta closet, asking my closest colleagues not to book meetings after 2 p.m. I write this after only three months of more regular napping, but I’ve already accepted this as my natural way of life going forward.

Yes, I’m a believer. This is the way the human body is supposed to work.

Asynchronous Communication

I recently learned this fancy term from an excellent article on remote work. Teams that master the art of asynchronous communication can do something that almost seems impossible: work together seamlessly while almost never bothering each other.

Email is the classic form of asynchronous communication. Your colleague sends a message, and you respond when you’re good and ready. Unless, of course, you allow email notifications to dictate your life (if this is you, do yourself a big favor and turn them off now).

Aside from vastly improving your ability to focus, the combination of remote work and asynchronous communication (or asynchronous remote work) can give you complete napping freedom.

So, if you have a computer job and want to experience the way the human body and mind are supposed to function, convince your boss to let you try this out. There has never been a better opportunity to make this sale.

Two Days in One

My habit of tracking my daily performance revealed a pleasant surprise about napping: As shown in the graph below, days with a nap yield more than two extra productive hours relative to days without one.

From what I now know about sleep, my theory for explaining my brain’s natural willingness to do more work on nap days goes like this:

• The human mind has temporary and permanent storage, and sleep frees up temporary storage by moving memories to permanent storage.
• In addition, sleep offers a form of therapy to naturally reduce stress and anxiety via dreaming in a state free of noradrenaline.
• Hence, an afternoon nap restores both our capacity to learn and our capacity to tackle emotionally challenging work.

The best way I can describe the siesta experience is that it almost feels like two days in one. After waking up from a siesta, there is a short period of sleep inertia, but soon, it feels like the start of a brand new day with a fully recharged brain.

Some Napping Pointers

Although I’m no siesta master yet, I can share five simple pointers that worked for me over the past 3 months:

1. Nap only when you feel that afternoon energy dip. Sometimes, especially when working on something interesting, it never arrives. In those cases, it’s best to skip the nap and go to bed an hour earlier that night.
2. Make sure there are at least six (preferably seven) hours between the end of your nap and your evening bedtime. You’ll have trouble falling asleep at night if you nap too late.
3. Try to do something relaxing for 10-15 minutes before your nap. In my case, it’s a session in my massage chair. A warm shower also helps.
4. Let your body decide how long it wants to nap (within reason). I set a timer for 90 minutes as insurance, but I almost always wake up naturally before it goes off.
5. If sleep plays hard-to-get, focus instead on enjoying this time of complete relaxation during an otherwise unproductive part of your day. Often, letting go like this allows sleep to come. If you find yourself unable to relax completely, get up to work on whatever kept relaxation away.

Give It a Try (If Your Lifestyle Allows)

The afternoon energy dip is not much good for anything other than a nice nap. To be honest, I’m not only less productive during those hours but also more strongly drawn to unhealthy indulgences. That’s no good.

So, if asynchronous remote work is at all a possibility for you, why not honor your biology and earn the right to your siesta? This vital shift can allow us to get more life out of each day and more days out of each life.

Images for this article were custom-made by Janet Cloete.