Sleep is an essential function that permits our body and mind to get recharge and make us alert when we wake up. It promotes health and mental well-being of a person.

Importance of good night sleep for 6-8 hours for healthy body can’t be denied. Sound sleep at night is important to retain and consolidate knowledge and resolve creative problems and regain strength. Likewise, taking midday naps, i.e. short sleep for 10-30 minutes is also proved good for mind.

Napping is considered as a normal daily routine for babies but many people continue daytime naps across a lifespan. Even history favours that genius minds like Einstein, Winston Churchill and Leonardo da Vinci were all fans for napping. 

Though napping gets a bad reputation in modern culture and considered as a sign of laziness, sleep studies proved its benefits also.

Benefits Of Sleep For Mental Health

Daytime nap is good for brain 

Daytime nap is a sleep that is usually short. It comes in all shapes and sizes. 

Naps aren’t only for toddlers. Different people take daytime naps for various reasons. For some people, daytime nap is a daily ritual while for others it is a restorative mechanism to compensate insufficient night time sleep.

Nap i.e. brief sleep during a daytime is a highly prevalent phenomenon worldwide. Short nap of 20 -30 minutes makes you feel refreshing without giving you any hangover effect of sleep. Napping improves glucose utilization by brain. Glucose acts as a fuel for brain. 

Thus, napping means tuning an engine of a car to run it more efficiently. It is an ideal way to cope with problems associated sleep deprivation and maintain optimum working of a body. 

Therefore, it may be the reason that daytime napping is becoming workplace trend in many corporate sector in hope that such culture could boost employ’s productivity and creativity. Companies such as British Airways, Nike, Pizza Hut and Google have either created designated nap rooms for their employees or simply encouraged their employees to rest at their desk.

 Benefits of napping

According to experts, you can reap several benefits from short day time naps, especially for your brain.

In the evolutionary process, we are biologically designed to sleep long and deep throughout a night and take a rest in the middle of day. Many of us feel fatigue and tired in the early to mid-afternoon. 

Napping for a short period of 15-20 minutes reduces drowsiness and fatigue. It gives you a midday boost that you are craving. It reset nervous system so that body could function more effectively. That is why we feel energized by napping for just 15-20 minutes. 

A well-rested person always appears pleasant and enthusiastic compared to sleep deprived one.

Regular, short nap improves alertness, enhances focus and ability to concentrate. Alert mind has an ability to think clearly on different concepts that facilitate judgement and decision making. 

Therefore, daytime nap can make a person more productive at work. This afternoon brain shutdown stimulates both attention and concentration that subsequently leads to better creativity.

Napping for 60 minutes improves cognitive ability and memory processing. It helps the person to remember facts, places and faces. It also enhances multi-tasking ability of a person.

Napping for a longer period of 90 minutes boosts the creativity of person and enhances memory. It also improves learning process. Brain of habitual nappers can easily consolidate motor learning and subsequently acquiring new skills.

Duration and timing of an ideal nap

Frequency of napping and benefits of well-being experienced varied from person to person. Longer naps more than 40 to 90 minutes could lead to deep sleep mode and cause night time sleep trouble.

Furthermore, napping in late hours of a day, especially too late in the afternoon increases the difficulty to fall asleep and stay asleep soundly throughout the night. 

Therefore, sticking to regular napping schedule only for 20-30 minutes in early afternoon (between 1-3 pm) is an ideal way to enjoy the benefits of well-being. Longer nap more than 30 min can make you groggy and disoriented afterward. So, don’t forget to set an alarm to make sure your nap is short but refreshing. 

Power nap

There is a concept of power nap also. Power nap is usually short in duration and less than 30 minutes. A power nap that lasts in between 20 to 30 minutes is usually ideal. This duration is long enough to reap the benefits of sleep without leaving you feel groggy when you get up.  There isn’t a perfect time to take a power nap.

According to some experts, power nap should not be more than 20 minutes, otherwise you will go in deep sleep. It provides restorative benefits of sleep without any adverse impact on an ability to fall asleep at night. Here, you will wake up feeling fresh and recovered rather than feeling sleepy. Power nap allows you to stay in lighter stages of sleep.

With power nap, you will feel refreshed and more awake throughout the day. It energies you and makes you more alert for next four to six hours. Power napping is a great way to feel relaxed, diminish fatigue, increase alertness and improve mood or performance.

Power nap is ideal for people involve in jobs requiring high vigilance. People working as drivers or pilots can recharge themselves with power naps. This reduces possibility of accidents and errors due to drowsiness.

So next time instead of sipping tea to reboot your mind, there is absolutely no harm in choosing short snooze.

Disclaimer 

Mediclin Brain Health’s content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.