An afternoon nap is a little epitome of happiness for all people, especially who work on night shifts. Learn when and for how long you should take an afternoon nap.
It is said that an afternoon nap taken at the right time energizes your body and gives you refreshment.
But it is often noticed that after an afternoon nap you feel groggy. This is because maybe you haven’t slept at the right time, or maybe you have slept for a long duration.
So the question arises is that what is the ideal time for an afternoon nap?
Ideal Time And Duration Of An Afternoon Nap
The duration of your nap and the type of sleep you are getting determines how much you are activating your brain.
The power nap as you call it should be 20 minutes maximum to increase your alertness and also enhance the motor skills like playing an instrument.
In a little duration sleep like a 10 minute or a 20-minute nap you will enter into the non-rapid eye movement stage or a non-REM stage which is not a deep sleep.
This will help you bring alertness into yourself and also decrease the wake-up grogginess feeling.
When you sleep for half an hour to 90 minutes, you complete all the essential sleep cycles and wake up feeling afresh. This will help to diminish the confused feeling, and some research says that it will increase memory and creativity.
Though sleeping for more than 30 minutes is better, if you wake up in between your sleep you will experience a hangover type of feeling which is known as sleep inertia. This can be very harmful to the rest of your day.
Some Tips For A Good Nap
- An Early riser who wake up by 5 am should sleep at 1 pm. Those who wake up at around 9 am should sleep at 3-4 pm.
- The time it right. Sleep for 10 and 20 minutes. Longer naps can cause sleep inertia or a period of grogginess and reduced performance caused by waking in the middle of deep sleep.
- Set up an alarm and see to it that it wakes you up.
- Sleep in a place where you are comfortable. Sleeping in an uncomfortable place will only result in increasing your fatigue.
- Try meditation.
- Read a book while falling asleep.
- If you are opting for a 60 or 90 minutes nap, then make sure that you are not disturbed in between. It will cause grogginess as well as might result in a bad mood and headache.
- Make it a schedule.
- If you are sleeping one day be sure to sleep every day at the same time. Other you will disrupt some normal body functioning which has got used to that nap.
So the conclusion is that a power nap is best when taken for 20 minutes. But if you want to opt for a longer nap then make sure you don’t get interrupted in between.
Take more naps and feel refreshed. Have a happy time napping!
