Nappers, hurkle durklers, and floor people: Unite! Rise!

Actually... just stay chill where you are.

I see you. You are tired, like me. This fall and early winter have been at times grueling and exhilarating, exhausting and inspiring. Perhaps you too were awake at 5:30 AM on the eve of Christmas still wrapping presents. Like Nosferatu, you dreaded the rising of the bright sun. You drifted in a stupefied state through the halls of your home, holding red candy canes and smiling with a jolly delirium from sleep deprivation. Your back ached from crouching over to fold, crease, and tape. Your knees aged several years from kneeling, your belly swelled with cookies and a single carrot. But as you drifted off for a quick nap before Christmas morning, you exalted in the chance to rest. A wonderful nap, and a potential harbinger of more to come after a blisteringly busy holiday season. Perhaps you will learn about some hurkle durkle now, or even the zen of a hard floor to lie upon.

The work of the holidays is almost done. It is now time to consider some sloth-like behavior if we can. Last year I presented a kind of New Year’s resolution to stand up straight against gravity. Noble, and still do that. But this year I’m going to present the opposite goal — to get horizontal, and embrace idleness.

For as John Lennon said: time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Naps

We all know what napping is, so this practice needs no explanation. But are naps a net positive or negative? I’m on the clock most days, running from patient to patient, to school for pick up, and then home to cook and the rest. Not rest. But there is one day a week when I stay at work until about 11 PM, and I find that catching a 25 minute nap around 2:30 PM before starting my evening office hours can feel like a minor miracle of neurotransmitter repletion. Sleep experts advocate for napping as a natural performance enhancer for improved cognition, reaction time, mood, and memory. Here are some key principles for effective napping:

• Set your nap time for 6-8 hours after waking to align with your natural circadian dip in alertness, and keep the duration to 20-25 minutes unless you specifically need a full 90-minute sleep cycle. Don’t obsess about consciousness versus unconsciousness. Just rest.

• Create optimal napping conditions by finding a quiet space, putting your phone on airplane mode, and using accessories like eye masks or earplugs if needed.

• Set an alarm before closing your eyes to prevent oversleeping, and wake up gradually using bright light exposure and light physical activity to restore alertness.

• Avoid late-day naps or excessive nap lengths that could interfere with nighttime sleep, though certain groups like athletes or pregnant individuals may benefit from longer rest periods.

• If napping isn't possible or doesn't work for you, consider alternatives like walking or meditation to give your brain a restorative break during the day.

---

Hurkle durkle

The Scottish term hurkle-durkle, dating back to the 1800s and recently trending on social media, describes the act of lingering in bed during morning hours when one should be up. Some research suggests potential benefits, with a December 2023 Sleep Health study showing weekend catch-up sleep reducing heart attack and stroke risk by 63%, and a Journal of Sleep Research study indicating improved cognitive alertness for regular snoozers.

But other experts warn of significant drawbacks with hurkle durkle. Extended morning lounging can disrupt circadian rhythms by reducing crucial morning light exposure, and using it to compensate for chronic sleep deprivation isn't effective for addressing sleep debt. The practice may also contribute to polyphasic sleep patterns (where sleep is split into multiple shorter periods throughout the day, such as sleeping for four hours, being awake for two, then sleeping another hour), which disturb natural sleep-wake cycles.

Those studies supporting hurkle-durkle behavior:

• Sleep Health: Extra weekend sleep reduced cardiovascular risks by 63% for those sleep-deprived during weekdays.

• Journal of Sleep Research: Regular snoozing showed improved morning cognitive alertness.

Key concerns:

• Hurkle durkle can mask underlying sleep disorders or mood conditions requiring medical attention.

• May disrupt circadian rhythms by reducing morning light exposure.

• Cannot effectively address chronic sleep debt.

• Can contribute to harmful polyphasic sleep patterns.

• May increase risks of cognitive and other neurological conditions when used as a substitute for proper sleep.

As I get older I have a much harder time sleeping in on the weekends, for many reasons. I am jealous of my college self, who once slept in until 6:30 PM and completely missed dinner at the dining hall.

---

Floor time

The practice of lying on the floor for relaxation and stress relief, known as "floor time," has also gained popularity on social media. #Floortime offers semi-comfortable relaxation. While there isn't extensive research on the benefits, psychologists suggest that lying flat on your back promotes an open, relaxed posture that can have a calming effect, and the hard surface may help people become more attuned to their bodies and less focused on their thoughts. This is in contrast to familiar places like beds where minds tend to keep working. Analogous practices exist in various cultures. The savasana (corpse pose) in yoga is a relaxation pose lying flat on your back with arms and legs extended. Lying on the floor will not be suitable for everyone due to physical limitations including arthritic joints, but many find that even a few minutes of floor time can serve as a beneficial reset button.

The New York Times ran a fun article about floor time almost a year ago. This quote is key:

You may assume that a comfortable mattress would be more conducive to relaxation. “But typically what happens, especially in familiar places like our bed, is our mind keeps working,” Dr. Fogel said. “We think about what happened during the day. We think about what we could have done or should have done.”

When lying on a harder surface like the floor, however, you may become more attuned to what your body is feeling and less focused on your thoughts.

To get comfortable, it becomes necessary to sink into the floor and soften your muscles, Dr. Fogel added. The focus on letting go makes it easier to help the body and mind decompress — to “just be,” he said.

I will say that lying on my curved back often feels painful, but then less painful, and then sometimes more painful later in the day. Moderation is key, and self-guidance based on nervous system feedback is advised. And yet, I’m going to resolve this new year to lie on the floor more often. Inspirational stuff, no?

Conclusion

Perhaps you have already mastered the high arts of napping, hurkle durkle lingering in bed, and making time to simply lie on the floor. Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time, especially when it recharges depleted neurochemistry.

After I hit send on this post, I’m going to close my eyes for 25 minutes. I anticipate a short sleep latency as I am pretty damn tired. Today there is no reason for nappers, hurkle durklers, and floor people to unite and rise up. Just unite, and let’s just stay where we are for a while.

I wish you a happy, healthy, resilient, and often restful New Year!