Marcus De Guingand asked:




Humans are naturally biphasic – meaning that we are programmed to have two periods of rest during a 24-hour period, a long rest at night and a shorter rest during the day. Our natural circadian rhythm produces a period of roughly 2 hours in the early afternoon where our body temperature drops leaving us feeling drowsy. Contrary to popular belief this is independent of lunch, albeit a particularly heavy or alcoholic lunch can amplify the drowsiness.

If we hark back to the pre-industrialisation era we can recall the paintings of a worker sat under a tree with his hat over his head taking a brief nap. As explained above this is what we are naturally programmed to do. However, as the factories began to work around the clock and we were paid by the hour, rather than by the task the day time nap quickly became extinct.

The fact is that napping during the day can lead to significant performance and health benefits. Napping has been scientifically proven to increase energy, alertness, productivity and creativity. It can also help improve mood, reduce stress and address other health issues such as obesity, hormonal maintenance and heart functioning.

A study by NASA on pilots found that they were 100% more alert and performed tasks 34% better (in the final stages of the flight) after a brief mid-flight nap than those who did not nap. Research last year by Harvard and Athens Universities examined the habits of 23,000 subjects in Greece. It concluded that amongst working men those who napped regularly were 64% less likely to die of heart disease, even after other factors such as diet, exercise and smoking had been eliminated from the equation. Naps help you to perform better and live longer.

There have also been some other interesting findings in recent times in terms of napping and performance enhancement. A study by Dr Sara Mednick (author of Take a Nap Change Your Life) during her time at Harvard showed that over the course of a day (between 9am and 7pm) our performance deteriorates by up to 52%. However, she found that a brief nap during the middle of the day halted the performance decline for the rest of the day.

City University in New York undertook a study allowing one group to relax in the middle of the day by reading or watching TV and the other group to take a nap. 6 hours after the break the nappers performed 15% better than the no nap group in a memory test.

A study printed in the Annals of Emergency Medicine back in 2006 also compared performance of ER residents and nurses on night shift. Those who napped (at 3am) made 24% fewer errors at 7:30am and were 23% quicker in completing a simulated intravenous insertion. Interestingly a mood profile test showed that mood amongst the nappers was 86% greater and they were 29% less fatigued.

At the moment most employees reach for caffeine, sugary snacks / drinks or high-carbohydrate foods. How many of us look forward to our daily chocolate fix. The simple issue here is that whilst we experience a short-term boost in alertness this is soon met with an equal and opposite dip in alertness and performance.

Further research by Mednick split subject into 3 groups a nap group, a caffeine group and a placebo group. In subsequent tests the caffeine drinkers performed significantly worse than the placebo group with the best performance achieved by the napping group. So whilst bosses are happy for staff to pop out for 15 to 20 minutes to the coffee shop down the road the reality is the boost from a coffee is minimal and short-lived.

A 15 to 20 minute nap will improve energy, performance, motor skills, result in fewer errors, lower heart rate, improve speech, abstract reasoning, planning, problem solving, learning and creativity. Napping is not toxic or harmful – could this be the reason why we choose to avoid napping – it’s not dangerous. What is more the increased energy boost can last for up to 8 hours so not only will you be able to achieve more at work, leave earlier, be more alert whilst driving home but you will also have more energy for your domestic / family life.

History is littered with famous high achievers who were avid nappers including: Einstein, Edison, Napoleon, Brahms, Dali, Da Vinvi as well as more recently Thatcher, Clinton and MacArthur (to name but a few). However I shall leave you with a quote from one of the most famous high-achieving nappers, a certain Winston Churchill who said, “Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That is a foolish notion held by people with no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more.” There again how can we expect to be imaginative when we are all over-worked, stressed and sleep deprived!

adrenal fatigue symptoms

Jim Muckle asked:




The tan carpet in #216 was shot.

It was hopeless.

A new carpet was needed.

That meant pulling up the old one, scraping off the pad, and then calling the carpet man and shelling out $1000 or more.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault.

The carpet had served well.

But, upon closer examination, I decided it wasn’t really in that bad of shape.

It didn’t have frayed edges, or worn down spots, and the nap was still pretty good. It just looked terrible. Bleach spots, stains, dark trails down the hallway and into the living room, and light spots where the sun had hit it on a daily basis through the windows.

No one would rent the apartment with a carpet in that condition.

I steam cleaned it in hopes that it would be miraculously healed.

No such luck.

Then it hit me.

Why not try dyeing the bleached out spots to blend in with the carpet.

I purchased an 8 ounce bottle of RIT tan dye (the kind you use for dyeing clothes) at the drug store for $4, mixed a little in a spray bottle with steaming hot water, shook it up and sprayed the spots.

They came out a brassy brown, nothing like the color of the existing carpet.

I had the carpet professionally steam cleaned. Surely they could perform a miracle.

Nope.

But I noticed that my dyeing job over the bleached out spots had maintained its original color.

Then it occurred to me, why not try dyeing the entire carpet to match the spots I had sprayed?

Two pictures came to mind on how I might do this.

I could mix the dye with hot water in my little steam cleaner (one like you would rent at the market) or I could use a pump up garden sprayer. I decided on the sprayer because the tenant below had suffered through enough steam cleaning noise.

I purchased an ACE Sprayer for $24.

I mixed 8 tablespoons of dye into the 2 quarts of steaming hot water in the sprayer, screwed in the pump, shook up the contents and pumped it up.

I placed four 1″x 6″ x 3′ pieces of wood along the edges of the walls so as not to get dye on the white paint. I adjusted the nozzle on the sprayer to a fine spray and began.

I moved the boards as I dyed, but after a while as I became familiar with the sprayer, I didn’t really need them.

Also, after dyeing a section, and before reloading the sprayer, I used my little Bissell carpet sweeper to even out the areas I had sprayed and work the dye into the carpet.

But still, the bleached out spots didn’t match the overall carpet color after I finished dyeing.

So the next day I applied another coat.

Better, but still not good enough.

Then I went back to the store for more dye, but they didn’t have anymore tan. I went to three other stores, but no tan.

So, I bought RIT’s dark brown dye.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I put 4 tablespoons of this darker dye into my 2 quarts of steaming hot water, pumped up the sprayer and applied another coat.

That’s when the magic began to happen.

The darker brown really kicked in.

The trails down the hallway disappeared, as did the light spots under the windows.

The carpet started to look like a real carpet again, but the bleached out spots still dyed a slightly darker shade than the rest of the carpet.

To compensate for this I dyed other parts of the carpet darker by spraying more dye on them, and continued using my carpet sweeper to even out the dye and work it into the nap. My goal was to blend everything together.

It worked… somewhat.

I applied two coats of the dark brown dye, about $12 worth of dye, over a 700 square foot area.

It was easy, and fun to do.

By the time I applied the second coat the carpet looked almost new.

Because I’ve obsessed over the bleached out stains in the carpet I can still find some of them, but not all. There is a slight darkening in the carpet where they once existed, but when a potential tenant came through to rent the apartment, and I explained to her what I had done, she glanced at it, said it looked fine, and went to look at the kitchen.

My daughter and my neighbor also viewed the carpet and both stated it looked great, better than their own carpets.

But I know it’s not perfect. It went from a D- or F to a C+/ B- or maybe even a B, and those grades really depend on what angle you look at the carpet from.

My father mentioned that the dye might be toxic.

I hadn’t thought of that. I figured if you could dye your clothes with it you could certainly do a carpet.

But to be safe I called RIT, the makers of the dye, and their representative assured me that all their dyes are non-toxic, but that they don’t recommend using them on carpets because some of their customers have called and said the dye rubs off over time.

I went back up to #216, soaked a rag with steaming hot water, and tried to rub off the dye in several spots.

Nothing happened.

Maybe in time the dye will wear off in well traveled areas.

I’m not sure.

Time will tell.

But if it does wear off, and the carpet is still usable, why not dye those areas again, like repainting walls, or staining wood doors and trim that experience wear and tear?

P.S. My daughter suggested that I include this following idea: Why not cut out a stencil of your favorite design, say a star or elephant, place it over the stain or bleached out spot, and then spray the dye into the stencil. A lot easier than dyeing the entire carpet!

Just a thought.

adrenal fatigue