As college kids, we are bound to experience nights where we get little to no sleep at all. This is a normal situation for most of us given the amount of work and priorities that we have to take care of. The sleep deprivation that comes along as a consequence is something that will distract us from our classes and clubs. There must be a remedy to solve this.
First thing’s first, the main remedy is to actually prioritize your time and sleep with a good schedule. But sometimes that’s very difficult to do. So the next best option is to take naps! Something you might not have known is that there are benefits for taking naps with different durations. Have you ever took a nap and ended up sleeping longer than you had expected? Then once you woke up you were even more exhausted than when you first wanted to take that nap. In this article, it is suggested that you take 10-20 minute power naps. That sounds absurd to a lot of college kids who could take naps that could go for hours. However, power naps that last 10-20 minutes can heavily improve your energy and alertness. Naps that go for even 30 minutes is close to naps that last for hours because you can wake up with what is called sleep inertia.
Long periods of napping can have many drawbacks. For instance, if you take a long nap during the day, you won’t be able to fall asleep at night which distorts your good sleep schedule that every college kid should try so hard to achieve. Therefore, you might want to take shorter naps.
There are ways where you can keep a consistent nap schedule to help you function well throughout your day. As stated before, you should take naps that go up to 20 minutes. Also, you should nap in the afternoon at a consistent time. Finally, make sure your environment for napping is a good one (not during class!).
Naps are a great thing. Unfortunately, some people (like myself) never take naps because they just can’t, but if you do take naps, you should use these tips to help be extra efficient.
Sources:
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/the-secret-and-surprising-power-of-naps
http://lifehacker.com/how-long-to-nap-for-the-biggest-brain-benefits-1251546669
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/in-depth/napping/art-20048319?pg=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_inertia
http://thetalentcode.com/wp-content/uploads/2607621162_13ece1c44c-1.jpg
In response to your comment Caroline Marino, according to Dr. Christopher Winter’s article in the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-christopher-winter/sleep_b_2084339.html) it takes an average of 15-20 minutes to fall asleep therefore I believe you should factor that into your naptime. If you start your nap at 2:00 then you should set your alarm for 2:30 that leaves 15 minutes to fall asleep and 15 minutes for a power nap. A way that I try to ensure I wake up feeling rejuvenated is by using a sleep time calculator (http://sleepyti.me/) because it helps you plan your sleep so that way your alarm isn’t set to wake you in the middle of a sleep cycle. If you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle you will feel groggy and unrested.
This concept has always really confused me. Research shows, like you said, that power naps are much more beneficial than long, two hour naps. However, my body’s reaction to these two kind of naps has never backed up that research. After a twenty or thirty minute nap, I always feel drained and want nothing more than to close my eyes again. I almost feel like it was a tease for my body. When I awake from a two hour nap, I usually feel rested and rejuvenated. I wonder why my body does not feel how research suggests it should after these naps. Perhaps it is just a state of mind though and I need to actually try out both types of naps again to truly compare.
As someone who has had experience with a variety of naps, I believe it is true, that the shorter naps are really the “power naps” that are able to rejuvenate and get you through the day. The only problem is that I don’t think most people set alarms for their naps so they can just sleep for as long as they’re tired, which in some cases, could be hours. This can really mess up your sleep schedule because its hard to get to sleep at night and then the cycle starts all over again the next day.
I’ve heard before that 10-20 minutes of sleep is good but I also heard that it takes a person 30 minutes to fall asleep. Is the 10-20 minutes a good time because you do not fully fall asleep? Or do you have to take into consideration the time it takes to fall asleep plus the 10-20 minutes you should nap for?
Very relevant post! My entire dorm room goes to class in the morning, comes back and sleeps for an extended period of time. I don’t nap and when I do it is unintentional and happens for only a few minutes. But it does seem to help when i fall asleep doing homework for fifteen minutes because it usually provides me with a second wind. On a personal anecdotal basis, I find this to be pretty accurate especially since most people wake up from hour naps very groggy and disoriented.
This is an interesting topic for a blog post because I always find myself in positions where I don’t know when and how long to sleep for. I have never heard the theory that the best naps to take are those that range from 10-20 minutes. I almost always end up oversleeping and wake up even more tired than I was before I laid down. I’ve never taken a nap as short as twenty minutes before, I will have to try it as a result of staying up late tonight. Hopefully it works!