Even though the human body is hard-wired to handle stress, constant worry and tension can put you at risk of countless health problems, including anxiety, depression, heart disease, and memory impairment.
By making an effort to squeeze nap time into your busy schedule, you may effectively reduce your stress levels and begin to balance out your sleep troubles.
Getting quality sleep can help regulate and reduce the production of cortisol the stress hormone and promote faster immune system recovery—leaving you feeling more emotionally stable and ready to tackle the rest of your day. In fact, a study conducted at NASA surveyed the cognitive effect of napping on military pilots and astronauts. In addition to feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the day, a good nap can elevate your mood. Studies have found that taking a nap can increase frustration tolerance, reduce impulsivity, and boost productivity.
With tiredness typically comes irritability, so when you take the time to recharge, you can effectively turn your mood and day around. Ready for a nap? Mastering the art of the power nap takes a little bit of know-how and a healthy dose of practice. Follow these four tips to optimize your best nap time.
Stick to the two recommended nap lengths: 20 minutes or 90 minutes. This will better ensure that you stay within the recommended nap lengths.
Be sure to consider how long it takes you to fall asleep and factor that into your alarm setting. Longer naps, especially after 3 p. One of the hardest parts of napping can be falling asleep. Sleeping too much can leave you feeling groggy long after you get up. Oversleeping has been linked to an increased risk of a number of conditions, including:.
Too little sleep can also have a number of negative effects on your health. Not getting enough sleep causes daytime sleepiness and irritability, and can impact your performance. Other effects of sleep deprivation include:.
Napping may be a luxury that few people can afford in these hectic times, but if you can manage to get even just 10 minutes of shut-eye during the day, you can reap numerous health benefits.
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Narcolepsy causes severe daytime sleepiness…. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. As a person sleeps, their brain naturally moves through different stages of sleep.
These stages cause different brain wavelengths and release specific hormones into the bloodstream. In the most beneficial naps, a person will only go into the first and second stages of sleep. These stages are more superficial and can help a person feel refreshed without them needing to go into a deeper sleep.
For most people, the whole sleep cycle is somewhere around 90— minutes long. Allowing the brain and body to reach the deep stages of sleep makes a person much less responsive to outside stimuli. It also causes the brain to release compounds that can make a person more tired, which helps them stay asleep for the whole night.
A person who wakes up from a nap feeling heavy and groggy likely went further into their sleep cycle. If this happens regularly after naps, they may want to check how long they are sleeping for and set an alarm. For instance, newborns sleep most of the day, as their development takes a lot of energy.
Young babies are also likely to take a few long naps throughout the day, which is good for their health. Toddlers and young children will start to develop a regular sleep pattern, but they could still benefit from taking a nap in the afternoon.
For example, they may respond well to longer naps of around an hour in the middle of their day. Teenagers face many challenges that can make them feel tired, such as hormonal changes, studying, and early school start times.
One study found that the best nap duration for teenagers is around 30—60 minutes. The authors of a study note the long history of research that has found strong evidence of the health effects of napping, including:. When it comes to long term health effects, there is nothing to suggest that napping is unhealthful in most individuals.
That said, some people may not benefit from naps. For instance, people who have sleep disorders such as insomnia may find that napping makes it more difficult for them to fall asleep at night.
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