Some people prefer to take a nap in the afternoon – either to regain their lost sleep or to help them feel more alert for the afternoon ahead. Even Boris Johnson supposedly prefers a nap to be able to during his working day (although Prime Minister’s officials dispute that claim). Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci were all famous nappers.
But while many of us may find that we usually don’t have enough time to take a nap during the day, working from home during the pandemic can now give us the opportunity to try taking a nap.
Napping is a great way to feel more rested and alert – and some research shows it can benefit our cognitive function. However, you may want to consider how much time you have to sleep before going to bed for your midday nap.
If you need to be alert right after waking up (for example, if you are getting a few extra minutes of sleep during your lunch break), so-called 10-30 minute “energy naps” are recommended. Longer naps can cause some initial drowsiness – although they keep the drowsiness away for longer. But drinking coffee just before a nap can help you wake up without feeling sleepy, while increasing your alertness.
While short naps are great for boosting energy, longer naps are more restorative and beneficial for learning. For example, they improve the activation of the hippocampus – an area of the brain that is important for learning and memory. An afternoon nap for one to two hours is shown to benefit your motor skills and your ability to remember facts and events.
A recent study from China even suggested that regular afternoon snooze is linked to better cognitive function in older adults. The researchers asked 2,200 people over the age of 70 about their napping habits before taking them through a series of cognitive tests that measured things like memory and language skills. They found that those who normally dozed were less likely to have cognitive impairments than those who did not sleep. This was true regardless of age or level of education.
But nap duration may play a role here – a similar study showed that those who normally napped for 30-90 minutes had better overall cognition compared to those who napped more or less, or who did not nap.
Why do naps work?
The reasons why short naps are so beneficial for alertness and focus are not well understood. It is possible that napping helps the brain to clear sleep-inducing residues that would otherwise inhibit brain activity and that they replenish the brain’s energy stores. Short naps can also help to improve your attention, allowing particularly sleepy areas of the brain to recover, thus preventing instability in the brain networks.
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Longer naps, on the other hand, are more restorative, in part because there is time to enter various stages of sleep, each of which supports different learning processes. For example, during REM sleep (rapid eye movement), the brain is almost as active as when it is awake. This activity in different regions of the brain – including those important for learning and memory – may be the reason why REM sleep supports both long-term and emotional memory.
During REM sleep, in particular, the brain strengthens the newly developed connections that are important for improvements in motor skills. Longer sleep also reduces unimportant connections, and that balance can improve the speed and effectiveness with which the brain works as a whole.
Non-REM sleep – the stage of sleep we spend most of our time in – contains slow brain waves and sleep spindles. Sleep spindles are periodic signals similar to bursts between different areas of the brain, which are believed to reactivate and consolidate memories. Both slow brain waves and spindles increase plasticity – the brain’s ability to learn and adapt to new experiences.
Although napping has many positive short-term effects, they are not recommended for people who suffer from insomnia. As naps decrease sleepiness, they can make it difficult to fall asleep when going to bed at night. Naps should also be avoided in situations where optimal performance is needed immediately afterwards, as it may take some time to wake up completely.
Another study showed that frequent nap was related to high BMI and high blood pressure. Napping was more common in shift workers, retirees and smokers, and in people with genes related to sleep disorders or obesity. The extent to which napping was harmful or beneficial to these groups remains unknown, but it is clear that napping is more common in groups that have disturbed sleep or need to sleep more.
If you are realizing that your ability to concentrate is faltering in the afternoon while working from home, you may want to try taking a nap before lunch. Short naps are great for improving alertness and alertness – and if you have time for a longer nap, it can help with memory and learning.