Sometimes, we just don’t get enough sleep at night. Maybe you had to finish that term paper or maybe the little ones kept you up. Whatever the reason, you may start to feel groggy come the middle of the day. What do you do? Consider taking a nap – research shows that napping (if done right) can help reinvigorate your body and get you back on track.
The National Sleep Foundation identifies three types of napping:
- Planned Napping: This is when you plan to take a nap before getting sleepy.
- Emergency napping: This is when you must take a nap, perhaps due to a long drive or late night.
- Habitual Napping: These are our regularly scheduled naps. Often, children will have a “nap time”.
While each type of nap can be beneficial, you should be aware of the potential negative side effects of napping in the mid day (if you’re not a child). Before we get into that, though, let’s look at some benefits of a good mid day nap!
The Benefits of Napping
There are tons of reasons why you should try to sneak in a few z’s during the day. From mental benefits to physical benefits, there’s a whole host of justifications for snoozing on the job (which, by the way, we do not advocate!).
- Emergency naps, above all others, can literally help save your life! If you’re feeling tired after a few hours on the road, pull over and get to sleep! There’s no use in pushing yourself without sleep. Humans, like all living organisms, need rest time to catch up with energy spent!
- Naps help boost our energy, lending a hand to alertness.
- They refresh our mind, helping us become the pensive, thoughtful person we really are.
- Mental performance takes a serious boost. As reported by the National Sleep Foundation, “A study at NASA on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%.”
- Naps boost your positivity! Take a mini vacation – to anywhere you’d like – and you’ll be feeling better in no time!
- Above all, it avoids the effects of sleep deprivation!
Considering these benefits, naps are nothing but good – right? No, no – unfortunately, there’s nothing perfect in our world, not even napping!
The Downside of Napping
While it’s hard to believe, napping isn’t always beneficial. In fact, many of the benefits of napping are only going to be realized under specific circumstances. That said, when you’re looking to catch up on your sleep and be refreshed, try to stick to a few simple rules:
- Keep your naps short. Generally, 20-30 minutes should do the trick – maybe 40 minutes if you’re feeling extra down.
- Make sure you’ve got a calm environment to nap. That last thing you want to do is to become aggravated and annoyed while you’re already sleep deprived!
- Avoid taking a nap close to bed time for obvious reasons. This is all a part of keeping a healthy sleep schedule!
So what if you decide to skip the tips? Well, there are some unfortunate side effects!
- One of the worst side effects of napping is sleep inertia – that feeling of groggy, disoriented consciousness. Usually, this occurs when you nap excessively.
- As stated above, napping can mess with your sleep schedule. Time your naps away from your usual bed times (shoot for something right in the middle of you day).
- Prepare to be stigmatized! Unbelievably (okay, not so unbelievably), napping is often associated with laziness. Picture the napping worker on the construction site – that guy every has a distaste for.
- Tied to the last one – don’t lose your job! The last thing you want to do is run the risk of sleeping in front of the boss (although you now have some handy arguments in support of napping!)
Take these tips with you when you nap and you’ll be set! Your body will gain energy, your mind will be as sharp as ever, and you’ll be ready to tackle the world!
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