Ever get up from a nap feeling additional groggy? Naps might be helpful on your psychological and bodily well being – however there’s a couple of issues it is advisable know. NPR’s Life Package has suggestions for the optimum nap.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Perhaps you consider napping as a luxurious. I definitely do. However there are quite a lot of well being advantages to a every day snooze for those who do it proper. Life Package’s Andee Tagle has extra on the straightforward steps to an important nap.
ANDEE TAGLE, BYLINE: The checklist of potential advantages from napping is an extended one.
JADE WU: I prefer to name it performance-enhancing drug with out the drug.
TAGLE: That is Jade Wu, a sleep drugs specialist and researcher primarily based in North Carolina, and writer of the e book “Hey Sleep.”
WU: It is good for our emotion regulation. It makes us much less biased in the direction of unfavourable stimuli, extra versatile in our pondering.
TAGLE: After which there are the bodily advantages, too.
WU: So athletes will typically use a nap to actually enhance their efficiency, they usually’ll discover that they’ve extra energy, extra stamina. They really feel fatigue much less shortly. Napping actually can all-around profit our efficiency and our general well being.
TAGLE: However all naps will not be created equal. Ever woken up from a day snooze and felt much more drained?
WU: Groggy, you are dragging. You are like, the place am I? What time is it?
TAGLE: There is a time period for that discombobulated feeling – sleep inertia. And it occurs whenever you get up in the midst of deep sleep. So how will you be sure your nap will go away you feeling refreshed? It is so simple as C, E, B.
WU: We need to be constant, early and temporary.
TAGLE: Let’s take every of these one after the other. First up, C for constant.
WU: And by constant, I imply, not haphazardly, generally early, generally late, generally, you already know, lengthy, generally brief.
TAGLE: Wu says take a web page out of some European international locations’ playbooks and decide a chosen time to relaxation.
WU: If you are going to have a siesta, do it on the identical time each day.
TAGLE: Then there’s E for early.
WU: Noon, early afternoon can be glorious.
TAGLE: Wu suggests aiming for a nap between midday and three p.m. throughout the day to keep away from sabotaging your nighttime sleep. Or for the evening owls and shift staff on the market, which means napping no less than six to eight hours earlier than your major relaxation interval to provide your self sufficient time to get sleepy once more earlier than mattress. Lastly, there’s B for temporary. This one could be painful for those who’re a fan of an extended, leisurely afternoon snooze, however…
WU: Naps which are too lengthy are, initially, going to intervene along with your nighttime sleep, and we do not need that.
TAGLE: Taking brief naps additionally makes it extra doubtless that you’re going to keep within the lighter phases of sleep and can be capable of keep away from that sleep inertia.
WU: We need to hold it at about half an hour, hour at most. For those who set a timer for about 45 minutes, give your self a couple of minutes to get into sleep, you will most likely find yourself sleeping about 30-ish minutes. And that is fairly secure. That is good.
TAGLE: From there, it is nearly making the time to take that break, which, in fact, is less complicated stated than executed.
WU: It would take quite a lot of observe at first as a result of we’re conditioned to be all the time multitasking, all the time productive, proper? It is actually laborious to truly simply relaxation for half-hour in the midst of the day, however it’s so essential.
TAGLE: And sure, that was relaxation you heard, stay awake. For those who’re not the napping sort, Wu says there’s nonetheless quite a lot of profit in taking a daytime pause.
WU: If I go to sleep, nice. If I do not go to sleep, additionally nice. Even for those who simply sort of hand around in a meditative state, do some mindfulness practices and even simply let your thoughts wander, these states are actually restful and actually particular and might be rejuvenating in an analogous means {that a} nap might be rejuvenating.
TAGLE: For NPR’s Life Package, I am Andee Tagle.
CHANG: And for extra Life Package, take a look at npr.org/lifekit.
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