I love
naps. I think most of us do. Especially on Saturday afternoon, while
watching golf. Have you ever noticed that golf is the perfect show for
napping? Must be all that soft talking they do.
To get all the potential benefits—and avoid the pitfalls—naps need to
be used correctly. I can’t count the number of patients I have who try
to catch some rest during the day, only to have their naps interfere
with their nighttime sleep and throw their sleep-wake cycles out of
sync.
Let’s talk through good napping. Then I’ll show you nine types of naps you can choose from.
Here’s a quick recap of the benefits of napping, which are pretty powerful. Naps can:
- Boost your brain function, including focus, accuracy, and concentration
- Enhance your creativity
- Improve your critical thinking skills
- Lower your stress levels and lift your mood
- Give you more energy and improve your physical performance
When it comes to napping, choose wisely. Know first what
you
want to get out of your nap before you decide when and for how long
you’ll sleep.- Are you looking to re-claim mental sharpness in your busy working afternoons?
- Want to have more power and energy for your end-of-day gym session?
- Need to prepare for—or recover from—a long-distance trip?
The timing and duration of your nap depend a lot on your
individual needs and circumstances. Those needs and circumstances change
over time—which mean your nap needs change, too.
What nap is right for you?
The CEO nap. If you’re looking for a boost to your
daily energy, focus, and mental performance, then a short power-nap (25
min) in the mid-afternoon (1-3 p.m.) is a good napping option for you.
Any longer and you will feel terrible. Whether you’re the CEO of a
start-up or your family’s household, you can stay sharp throughout the
day with a brief rest between 1-3 p.m. Just don’t stop paying attention
to getting the nightly rest you need.
The Nap-A-Latte. This is my favorite strategy for
those days when your energy is really lagging and you need a quick lift.
The Nap-A-Latte combines a moderate amount of caffeine with a short period of rest to deliver you the benefits of both at once. Here’s how it works:
- Drink a 6-to-8-ounce cup of coffee, quickly. (Add ice cubes to cool it down–if you’d like.) You want about 90-100 mg caffeine, which is roughly the content of a regular cup of coffee—not a super-sized version.
- Quickly, find a quiet place to lie down and take a 20-minute snooze. Set a timer so you don’t oversleep.
You’ll wake just as the stimulant effects of the caffeine are
kicking in (roughly 20 minutes), having also relieved some of the sleep
pressure that’s been building and making you feel tired.
The Nap-A-Latte is not an everyday napping strategy. I
recommend using this nap no more than two times a week. If you find
yourself seriously tired during the day on a routine basis, it’s time to
take a close look at your sleep routine, including how much sleep
you’re getting and your sleep hygiene habits.
The New Mom nap. Moms (and dads) taking care of newborns and young children not sleeping
through the night: the strategy here is to nap when your child
naps. Resist the temptation to try to be productive in other ways while
your child is sleeping. As a parent
getting the sleep you need, you’ll have more energy, more patience, and
more focus for your child and all the other parts of your busy life if
you’re not chronically sleep deprived.
The Sports nap. Sleep is a not-so-secret weapon in sports performance—so long as you time it right. Whether you’re playing in a cutthroat doubles’ tennis tournament, running a 10K road race,
or tearing up the field in an evening indoor soccer league, a
well-timed nap can give you an edge. A short, 15- to 20-minute nap will
deliver immediate benefits to physical and mental performance for a
period of time—without any sleep inertia upon waking (feeling like you
just can’t wake up). A longer nap can also deliver significant physical
and mental benefits, and they will last longer once they kick in—after a
period of clearing the cobwebs. If you don’t give yourself enough time
for sleep inertia to pass, you’ll be sluggish and groggy on the
field rather than stronger, faster, and more energized.
The Disco nap.
This is a classic nap strategy that comes from the days of the Bee Gees
and Donna Summer. When you’re planning a late night, take a 90-minute
nap before you head out for the evening. You can combine this rest with
the Nap-A-Latte for an even greater energy boost. This is an effective
way to give yourself the stamina and energy for an evening celebration
that you know is going to run late into the night (or early morning). A
couple of important caveats:
- This is a special occasion nap! A lifestyle that makes the Disco nap a regular habit isn’t good for your sleep or your health.
- Get up at your regular time the next morning. Yes, even if you stayed up until sunrise. Your day will feel long and sleepy, but you’ll be ever-so ready for sleep come nighttime, and you’ll keep your sleep schedule intact.
The Siesta. Some cultures are way ahead of the
United States in embracing the practice of a rest period during the day.
In Spain, Greece, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Philippines and other nations
around the world, naps are a part of daily life. I’d love to see
workplaces in the U.S. and other non-napping societies start to dim the
lights and close the shop doors at 2:30 P.M. to give everyone time to
re-charge. We’re not there yet—but I believe we will get there. If your
life and culture incorporate a daily rest period, fantastic. If they
don’t, be on the lookout for ways you can adjust your daily routine to
make time for some downtime during the day.
The Shift Work nap. Shift workers face a number of
challenges to healthy sleep because they’re so often awake and active
when their bodies are meant to be asleep. As a result, they’re more
likely to be sleep deprived. They face particular risks to their health,
linked to their atypical sleep-wake schedules, and they also face
elevated risks for accidents and injury because of fatigue. Shift
workers are more likely than the rest of us to need to break up their
sleep into segments, and they can benefit greatly from strategically
timed naps.
Depending on your schedule and the requirements of your job, napping as a shift worker might include:
- A short nap before your shift begins, and/or napping on short breaks during shifts
- Scheduling sleep in two or more segments, including a longer segment (4-5 hours) at the end of a shift, combined with one or two 90-minute naps throughout the day leading up to your next shift.
Shift workers can benefit greatly from workplaces that allow—and
encourage—nap breaks during a shift. But on-the-job napping is a
benefit that I’d like to see for all workplaces. Companies are getting
better at addressing sleep as a workplace
issue, but we have a long way to go. Nap rooms and nap pods are popping
up at companies including Google, Procter & Gamble, and Zappos,
among others. Knowing what we do about the cognitive
and psychological benefits of napping, encouraging employees to take
rest periods during the workday is a smart move for employers.
The Teen nap. Teens experience a significant shift
to their circadian clocks, making them biologically driven to stay up
late and wake late. That biological drive to be awake and alert at
night, combined with early school start times, leaves a great many teens
with a chronic sleep debt. Their lack of sleep puts them at greater
risk for academic, behavioral and emotional problems, as well as health
problems later in life. For teens, a short 20-minute nap after school,
or some longer recovery sleep—up to 90 minutes—on the weekends, can
help. Just so long as it doesn’t push their weeknight bedtimes even
later, or leave them with Sunday night insomnia.
The Jet Lag nap. This is the type of nap I use most often. Travel-related naps spare me frustration and fatigue, reduce jet lag,
and help me keep my energy up even with a very rigorous travel
schedule. Naps can help your body transition to new time zones, can make
up for lost sleep during travel, and can supplement nighttime sleep
when your itinerary is very busy. The most important thing to know about
scheduling sleep for travel is to adopt the schedule that fits your
destination time zone. Sleep when the locals sleep. An extended nap on a
long flight can help you begin to transition your body to your new time
zone, provided you’re sleeping during a time when you’d be sleeping if
you lived at your destination. A short, 20-minute nap can help you make
it through the first, jet-lagged day in a different time zone, and still
allow you to fall asleep on local time.
CAUTION: Remember, naps aren’t for everyone. If you’re suffering from depression,
you’re likely experiencing some type of sleep issue, and your circadian
rhythms may be disrupted. Napping can make your depression worse.
People with insomnia also shouldn’t nap. For insomniacs, a daytime nap
can make it harder to fall asleep on schedule at night. Naps should work
with your nighttime sleep routine, not undermine it.
AUTHOR
Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and a diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. He is the author of Beauty Sleep.
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