Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.
Ultradian Rhythms & the 20-minute Break
Merlin Mann | Sep 7 2006
I had a Psychology teacher back at New College (who's now apparently an expert in the Klingon language), who used to talk about how the human body had these ±90-minute cycles. And that if you could become aware of yours, you could do Great Things -- particularly because you could learn the optimal time to snag a nap versus, say, try to cure small-cell carcinoma. Not sure if this is exactly what he was talking about, but I am certainly fascinated by the idea of ultradian rhythms:
A guy named Rossi appears to be the mainstream gorilla in this field, especially as it pertains to "healing" (or, to put it less fancily, rest and renewal). He wrote a book called The 20 Minute Break and has a site where I found this overview/interview:
Just learned about this stuff last night, so, no, I haven't read much more than what I'm posting here yet. Thing is, I recently started taking 20-minute naps every day (with the assistance of the most excellent Pzizz), and the effects so far have been profound. So I'm especially interested in whether there's a connection here. What do you guys say? What's the deal with ultradians? Is there anything to this? Does this jibe with your experience? Prof. Schoen, are you out there? 39 Comments
POSTED IN:
J, do a lit search in...Submitted by Paul (not verified) on September 8, 2006 - 12:44pm.
J, do a lit search in Medline/PubMed for "nasal ultradian rhythm" and see what comes up. What this whole threead points to is the attempt to translate a fairly pure science finding ("great... the nasal ultradian rhythm is 45 minutes a side for a total of 90, give or take error variance"), some correlational research ("when the nasal rhythm is dominant in one nostril, there is appears to be greater EEG integration in the opposite hemisphere"), and translate it into some useful applied practice ("here I am in my cubicle, it's 10 am and I need a smoke/coffee/etc, but I would rather harness the natural power of my body and mind, so what can I do?") Whenever there's this many steps between the 'pure' finding and the 'applied practice' there's bound to be hits and misses. Paul » POSTED IN:
|
|
EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |