Now that she’s working from home, Kendra King takes an afternoon nap most days, usually for about 20 to 30 minutes. “Many times, I go in with the intention not to nap, but to lie down and relax,” said King, a writer who lives in Philadelphia. “Then I fall asleep and feel energized and refreshed to continue my day.” King didn’t realize she had naturally fallen into the napping routine that sleep experts recommend. Or researchers say that short naps improve motor skills, enhance memory and boost creativity, even though she did feel that way.
“I’m definitely more creative after I nap,” he said. That’s because so-called power naps last less than 30 minutes, allowing the brain to rest, making you more alert, experts say. The naps aren’t long enough to put you into a deep sleep, leaving you feeling groggy after you wake up. “We know it’s an easy, helpful way to quickly boost your alertness, your concentration, your productivity, your creativity and your mood. It’s a royal flush,” said James Maas, who spent 48 years studying sleep as a Cornell University professor.
Where do naps fit into the circadian rhythm
Maas, author of “Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep But Are Too Tired to Ask,” said nearly everyone experiences an afternoon slump in their energy. It depends on the body’s circadian rhythm, which involves drowsiness twice every 24 hours, once at night and again between about 2 and 4 a.m.
On a typical night, people go through several 90-minute sleep cycles spanning five stages, from light to deep sleep, with the deepest sleep coming in the middle. Daytime sleep follows this cycle as well, which is why Maas doesn’t recommend hour-long naps. Waking up from such deep sleep can take up to an hour to return to normal, a condition known as sleep inertia.
Short naps involve only stage two sleep, which is particularly helpful for alertness and memory, said Sarah Mednick, a sleep researcher at the University of California-Irvine. “It’s like putting yourself in a low-energy mode for a little while and giving your body a rest,” said Mednick, author of “Take a Nap! Change Your Life.”
His research has found that taking a nap works better than caffeine and a placebo to improve cognitive functioning. In fact, an afternoon cup of coffee is the least effective of the three. “We’ve shown a better effect on performance with placebo than caffeine,” he said. “So if you think you’re getting caffeine, you’re actually going to perform better than if you didn’t get caffeine.”
How to start
Find a quiet, dark and cool place and set a timer for 15 or 20 minutes, which is a good starting point until you see how your body adjusts. Even if you feel like you haven’t slept, you still get the benefits, Mednick said. People don’t feel like they’re asleep until they reach stage three, the deep, slow-wave sleep. “When you’re in stage two sleep, your brain is still alerting you to the world around you,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not getting the benefits of sleep.”
Experts say short naps don’t interfere with nighttime sleep, unless they’re too late in the day. Aim to nap about 6 or 7 hours after waking up, and try to nap at the same time every day. Mednick recommends saving longer naps for weekends, or when you have time to sleep for a full 90 minutes. After about half an hour, you enter slow-wave sleep, which helps the body repair muscle tissue. REM, or rapid-eye movement, comes at the end of the sleep cycle; it’s associated with fantasy dreams and helps process emotions.
Maas said that only those people should avoid napping who have trouble sleeping at night. Senior citizens should be especially cautious because they tend to nap for too long during the day.
Don’t you like taking a nap?
Mednick’s research also showed that napping isn’t for everyone. About half of the people he tested didn’t benefit from it. “I would say to people who really don’t like napping, ‘Listen to your body.'”
