Before industrialisation began, taking a short break to rest and sleep was the norm. It was only after work hours were stretched for the entire day that sleep got confined to night hours.
Over time, the workplace lifestyle and demands instigated the concept of exclusive night sleep, now known as ‘monophasic sleep’.
While ‘biphasic sleep’, also called split, divided, or fragmented sleep, typically refers to sleeping for two episodes in a 24-hour slot, a longer one during the night and a relatively shorter one during the day.
Daytime sleep, often referred to as a nap, can be shorter or longer according to one’s preferences and habits.
What is engrossing is that biphasic sleep has been an innate part of other animals, like birds and mammals. The logical reason is regaining their energy to hunt and save themselves from becoming prey by becoming extremely exhausted by the end of the day.
Likewise, biphasic sleep patterns had been a predominant practice across various cultures in certain parts of Europe and the Arab world to avoid midday heat, post-lunch dip; and avoid stress and lassitude.
In Prophetic Medicine, a short daytime nap is referred to as ‘Qailoolah’. It was practiced and recommended by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to overcome fatigue caused by fasting, manage energy levels and improve cognitive function. As the day is quite long and you are awake since wee hours of dawn along with fasting, having a brief sleep session during the day helps managing daytime errands and tasks as well as nighttime prayers.
Generally, people do feel better when they get a quality sleep of 5-6 hours during the night, followed by a shorter nap of half an hour or a slightly longer one during the day.
A review study published in Sleep Medicine on Science Direct mentions, “Various studies have reported the benefits of napping in the general population, including enhanced alertness, improved performance on cognitive and motor tasks, reduced sleepiness and lower subjective fatigue. Additionally, napping has not been shown to negatively impact nocturnal sleep quality or duration and even brief naps, as short as 15 minutes, can help sustain alertness and performance following sleep deprivation”.
Subsequently, consistent and regular sleep schedules are pivotal in deriving the utmost benefits from biphasic sleep. If this daytime nap gets longer or one takes multiple naps, it can lead to sleep disturbances during the night.
Prolonged napping draws grogginess post-sleep, swiping away the active benefits of fasting, eventually preventing one from entering deep sleep later during the night, where cell repair, regeneration and memory consolidation take place.
Ramadhan is a candid opportunity to identify your sleep requirements, your priorities and implement sleep hygiene that can be replicated for the rest of the year. The day rolls early, you fuel up your body with nutrient-rich suhoor that sustains you throughout the day and provides the right energy to carry out your daily tasks and goals, with spiritual enhancement, eventually letting you sleep early and profoundly.
Speaking of concurrent lifestyle, sleep has become an overlooked aspect; yet it sits at the top of the healthy lifestyle hierarchy, above food habits and everything else. Like every other system, your body needs maintenance before it crashes. An early night sleep is unsurpassed; even a 12-14-hour sleep window won’t come any closer if it sets late and stays late.
Sticking to your power naps in the day is remarkably natural and innate; and you shouldn’t be reluctant to imbibe the goodness out of it starting this Ramadhan.
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