Medical professionals advise us to get a solid seven to nine hours of sleep each night to remain healthy and alert. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done. Restful sleep can elude us for reasons out of our control, from sick little ones to random bouts of insomnia. Even when we do get a full night of shut-eye, we might still find ourselves ambushed by fatigue in the middle of the day.
Naps: It’s Quality, Not Quantity
It’s tempting to grab a long nap when we feel tired during the day, but luxurious daytime rests can do more harm than good. We can wake up groggy and more tired than when we laid down, and worse, we may find that a daytime nap perpetuates the cycle of sleepless nights.
A power nap, which is a 15-to-20 minute nap, can leave us refreshed and more alert without the leftover sleepiness of a longer nap. Better still, power naps won’t interfere with our ability to sleep when bedtime arrives. Here are some reasons why adding a power nap to your daily routine can improve your health and contentment!
Benefits of Power Naps
1. Power naps increase your productivity. Napping is thought to embody laziness, but in truth, a quick nap will improve your productivity. Power naps decrease your fatigue in a short period of time and boost your ability to accomplish tasks.
2. Power naps don’t interfere with your ability to sleep at night. Your circadian rhythm, or body clock, keeps certain patterns throughout the day. A long sleep in the afternoon may prevent your natural rhythms from allowing you to sleep at night. This can lead to prolonged periods of insomnia, which can contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other serious health issues. Power naps keep you in a lighter stage of sleep, and the brief duration will not interrupt your body’s patterns.
3. Power naps decrease your need for caffeine. It’s natural to reach for a mug of coffee or a can of soda to perk you up when fatigue strikes. This chemical boost can temporarily increase your energy, but it can also leave you jittery. When the effects of the caffeine wear off, you may find yourself as sleepy as you were before. Power naps combat fatigue more effectively than caffeine, and leave you mentally alert without the impending crash. Caffeine can also decrease the performance of your memory, while a power nap increases it.
4. Power naps decrease stress. Studies suggest regular naps may reduce stress on your body and mind. These brief vacations from the strain of your day give you a much-needed break. Decreased stress may also decrease your risk of heart disease.
5. Power naps improve performance and accuracy of work. Sleep studies have shown short naps can enhance performance of tasks by more than 30%. Studies also show naps boost our ability to focus on complex tasks that require motor skills or memory.
For the best results, find a quiet, restful place where you can nap undisturbed. A blanket or jacket can help prevent you from getting cold, which can interfere with your quality of sleep. Set an alarm for 20-30 minutes, so you don’t oversleep the target duration of your nap and wake up groggy. A consistent napping schedule is best, especially between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. Pleasant dreams!
