It has been observed that many people experience a natural increase in drowsiness in the afternoon. After eight hours after waking most people tend to sleep again. Research shows that you can make yourself more alert, reduce stress, and improve cognitive functioning with a nap. Mid-day sleep, or a ‘power nap’, means more patience, less stress, better reaction time, increased learning, more efficiency, and better health. 

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Are there any benefits of power nap?

Most experts agree that the body needs seven to nine hours of sleep per day, depending on personal and genetic factors. Some research shows that sleeping for less than six hours can increase your risk of a car accident. Sleep is cumulative; if you lose sleep one day, you feel it the next. If you miss adequate sleep several days in a row, you build up a ‘sleep deficit’, which impairs your reaction time, judgment, vision, information processing, short-term memory, performance, motivation, vigilance and patience. Fatigued people may also experience more moodiness, aggressive behaviours, burnout, and more stress.

The benefits of a power nap have been studies over the years over various experiments. Studies show that twenty minutes of sleep in the afternoon provides more rest than twenty minutes more sleep in the morning. The body seems to be designed for this, as most people’s bodies naturally become more tired in the afternoon, about eight hours after we wake up.

When you sleep you pass through different stages of sleep, known together as a sleep cycle. These stages include light sleep, deep sleep which is believed to be the stage in which the body repairs itself, and rapid-eye-movement sleep, during which the mind is repaired. Many experts advise to keep the nap between fifteen and thirty minutes, as sleeping longer gets you into deeper stages of sleep, from which it’s more difficult to awaken.

Also, longer naps can make it more difficult to fall asleep at night, especially if your sleep deficit is relatively small. However, research has shown that a one-hour nap has many more restorative effects than a thirty-minute nap, including a much greater improvement in cognitive functioning. The key to taking a longer nap is to get a sense of how long your sleep cycles are and try to awaken at the end of a sleep cycle.

As there are pros and cons to each length of sleep, you may want to let your schedule decide: if you only have 15 minutes to spare, take them! But if you could work in an hour nap, you may do well to complete a whole sleep cycle, even if it means less sleep at night. If you only have 5 minutes to spare, just close your eyes; even a brief rest has the benefit of reducing stress and helping you relax a little, which can give you more energy to complete the tasks of your day. But don’t confuse a brief rest with micro sleep.

If you want to obtain more sleep and the health benefits that go with getting enough sleep, one should think of more effective napping and sleep at night. Avoid caffeine after 3 p.m. It’s a stimulant that can disrupt your sleep and stay in your system longer than you think; its half-life is four to six hours! If you don’t want to nap a long time, set an alarm. If you don’t have time for a power nap or don’t feel comfortable napping during the day, try meditation, it gives your body a rest and produces slower brain waves similar to sleep.