If you haven’t been a regular napper since you were in diapers, you may want to reconsider it. Studies over the past couple decades show a short nap of 20-30 minutes can:
- Boost mood: A 1999 study found that a mid-afternoon nap improved not only sleepiness and performance level, but self-confidence.
- Create better focus and alertness: A NASA study found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34 percent and alertness by 100 percent in sleepy pilots and astronauts.
- Improve performance: Studies found that those who napped for an average of 25 minutes had fewer performance lapses, more vigor, and less fatigue, and that they tended to more quickly complete their tasks.
- Improve ability to learn: Studies found that naps as short as 10 minutes restored wakefulness, improved performance, and enhanced learning ability.
- Improve memory better than caffeine: A 2008 study found that taking naps was more effective for improving verbal memory, motor skills, and perceptual learning than caffeine was.
Napping also seems to boost brainpower—important for creativity. A 2010 study, for instance, found that an hour’s nap dramatically boosted and restored brainpower. Participants performed a challenging task early in the day where they had to remember a lot of facts. Then half of them took a nap in the afternoon, and the other half didn’t. Those who did performed better on a second challenging mental exercise—and better even than they had performed on the one they did earlier in the day.
If you’d like to incorporate a nap into your day, or want to improve the quality of your naps, try these tips.
- Make it short Studies have found that 10-20 minutes is optimal, up to 30. A long nap (longer than 30 minutes) can mess up your sleep cycles.
- Make it comfortable: Find a dark, quiet place. Sitting upright will help you wake up more easily, but most people nod off faster if they lie down. Choose your position based on how long you have. A ten-minute nap may be best spent in a chair, but it may not boost your creativity as much as a 20 minute nap lying down.
- Make it routine: Planning a regular nap time can help prepare your body so you easily fall asleep and wake up again.
- Take it at the optimal time: If you have a pretty normal schedule, optimal nap times are between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. Based on human circadian rhythms, we become naturally sleepy in the afternoon, which makes it the perfect time for a nap. Any later than that can interfere with your nighttime sleep.
- Enjoy it!
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