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Can’t Sleep? Try ‘Quiet Wakefulness’ Instead
Stop trying so hard to nap. Resting could have similar benefits.
When professional sports organizations are looking to build a nap room for players, one of the first things that sleep specialist W. Christopher Winter, M.D., tells them is: Don’t call it that.
“We try to get teams to call these rooms something that doesn’t have ‘sleep’ or ‘nap’ in the title — the ‘restoration room’ or the ‘regeneration room,’ for example,” explains Winter, who consults with the MLB, NHL, and NBA.
The reason: To take away that implied, it’s-time-to-sleep pressure where your experience is considered successful if you sleep and a failure if you don’t.
The other reason: It introduces the idea of a powerful resting activity called “quiet wakefulness,” which is gaining traction among sleep doctors and busy-but-health-conscious circles.
What exactly is quiet wakefulness?
In short, it’s simply resting with your eyes closed. It’s compelling, in part, because it completely eliminates the stress surrounding sleep — particularly that I can’t fall asleep right now so my health is going to fall apart feeling that keeps you awake.
