I know especially as the school year progresses, I will not be able to make it through the day without a nap. There isn’t enough time in one day with all the schoolwork and extra-curricular activities that most students try to balance but I know we are capable of always fitting a nap in. Some individuals can sleep all afternoon and although we think it’s best to get more sleep, that isn’t the case in the afternoon.
More than 85% of humans sleep for a short period of time throughout the day due to such sleep deprivation. Researchers have observed many humans sleeping patterns and one very common topic has been naps. Scientists first concluded that the most successful nap is between 10 and 20 minutes. These short naps have the most effective results.For example it can help relaxation, improve performance, increase alertness and cause less confusion when an individual wakes up. Researcher Sara C. Mednick says that these short naps will benefit you day so much and will give you the best energy boost.
Longer Naps can be worse for the body. Those who nap longer are observed to have sleep inertia and nighttime sleeping problems. Sleep inertia is the feeling of confusion after they nap for longer than 30 minutes. Once the body sleeps longer than 30 minutes, their body goes into a deep sleep that makes them even more tired when woken up. Post-nap impairment is more common to those who sleep longer and will actually make humans feel worse. Although you are more tired when you wake up, it will be harder to fall asleep later at night.
One of the most famous nap experiments was actually used with astronauts in NASA. There were 91 volunteers who spent 10 days on a different sleeping schedule. The observers came up with 18 different sleeping arrangements. The sleep schedule first ranged from 4 to 8 hours and then added a nap that was between 0 and 2.5 hours. The astronauts were then tested after they woke up from a nap based on their memory, alertness, response time and other skills. Some other studies that were not covered by this blog were their temperature and hormone levels that tend to fluctuate throughout the day. The results of this experiment that naps don’t recover constant sleepless nights from the astronauts but they do boost the performance of those who need a short-term boost.
Some say that even naps are more beneficial to students then caffeine. The best way to recharge your body is to power-nap and avoid the sugar. It’s good that naps so short are better because we are so busy for longer ones. If a nap is encouraged, I have no problem taking that advice.
Sleep! This was something I can totally relate to, I HATE naps and every time I take one that is more than 30 mins I feel so out of it and dysfunctional. I believe 10-20 minutes is absolutely ideal. In my Psych class we learned about all the stages of sleep and like you said how it isn’t good to take a long nap and then wake up and disrupt the process. I think you definitely wake up more tired after a long one! quick power naps people!!!!
This topic is certainly very relevant, especially in a college student’s life. Seeing as that I struggled with an excessively long nap today, this post definitely caught my eye. From years of experience from taking naps, I definitely agree with both you and your research that longer naps are less beneficial. Though your body and brain may be signaling your state of tiredness, it is important not to ‘over-do it’ when taking naps seeing as that it does, in fact, make you more groggy throughout the day. I am really going to try focusing my naps from here on out strictly to 20 minutes to see if there is improvement in my everyday energy. Great topic, well written!
I thought this was a very interesting and relevant topic, since, as college students, many of us are familiar with the habit of taking frequent naps. This study corroborates your stance that 20 minute naps can be beneficial. Participants in this study were assigned to either take 20 minute naps or to rest while sitting without falling asleep. When the participants were awoken, they were asked to perform a task. The participants who had napped showed improved performance on these tasks, as well as more confidence while completing the task. Thus, the conclusions drawn were that 20 minute naps can have a positive impact on one’s ability to perform tasks. I am certainly not disappointed to hear that napping is actually beneficial if done properly!
I really like this article because I find myself napping quite often, especially now because I’m sick. I definitely believe what you said in this article because I feel like I always feel worse when I wake up from a long nap compared to a short one. However, I know it would be taking the blog in a different direction, but I wonder if napping is more beneficial when you’re ill. That would be an interesting thing to research as an extension of this blog. Great post, excellent points. Really relevant.
I found this post very interesting as I have always been against naps. I find that naps are extremely worthless no matter how tired I may be. It is very interesting though because I rely heavily on my coffee in both the morning and afternoon… I think it is hard to tell whether a nap is actually beneficial or not because of the amount of third variables such as someones overall motivation to do school work or be productive after a nap, or even just laziness. Anyways, well written, I really enjoyed learning about this!
I thoroughly enjoyed this blog. I’ve always wondered about naps, and the picture you showed was great to figure out how long of a nap I need to schedule throughout my day. Sometimes when I nap too long, it has disastrous effects, and often leads to me feeling like shit whenever I wake up. In your studies, did you ever find any validity to the idea that Consuming Coffee before a nap could actually be the best thing for you? The idea lies in that since coffee takes about 30 minutes to have effect, you could squeeze in one of those crucially timed 20 minute naps, and wake up feeling not only refreshed, but also get hit with the caffeine from the coffee you drank prior.
My mom always told me that I should on nap for about 15 minutes because it was better for my body but I never thought that was a legitimate thing. Personally, when I get back from class I usually take a nap ranging from 45-60 minutes. When I wake up from this “nap” I sometimes feel even more tired than I was before I fell asleep. Here is a link that I found that talks about the three different types of napping!
Different napping types
http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/
I am absolutely fascinated by the idea that the societally conventional 8-hour sleep cycle is actually neither conducive nor beneficial for the natural biological sleep patterns humans should adopt! I’ve found that I am more productive with 5- 6 hours a night, and a small nap around the afternoon! Other people obviously have their own habits so my preferences are anecdotal, but this article is a good insight because so many people stand blindly by the idea of just 8 hours of sleep without any flexibility in their sleep patterns, and for this I believe their levels of stress and productivity suffer!