Ever get up from a nap feeling further groggy? Naps may be useful to your psychological and bodily well being – however there’s just a few issues it is advisable to know. NPR’s Life Equipment has suggestions for the optimum nap.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Perhaps you consider napping as a luxurious. I definitely do. However there are numerous well being advantages to a each day snooze should you do it proper. Life Equipment’s Andee Tagle has extra on the easy steps to an awesome nap.
ANDEE TAGLE, BYLINE: The checklist of potential advantages from napping is a protracted one.
JADE WU: I wish to name it performance-enhancing drug with out the drug.
TAGLE: That is Jade Wu, a sleep drugs specialist and researcher based mostly in North Carolina, and writer of the ebook “Good day Sleep.”
WU: It is good for our emotion regulation. It makes us much less biased in direction of unfavourable stimuli, extra versatile in our considering.
TAGLE: After which there are the bodily advantages, too.
WU: So athletes will usually use a nap to actually increase their efficiency, they usually’ll discover that they’ve extra energy, extra stamina. They really feel fatigue much less rapidly. Napping actually can all-around profit our efficiency and our general well being.
TAGLE: However all naps will not be created equal. Ever woken up from a day snooze and felt much more drained?
WU: Groggy, you are dragging. You are like, the place am I? What time is it?
TAGLE: There is a time period for that discombobulated feeling – sleep inertia. And it occurs if you get up in the midst of deep sleep. So how will you make sure that your nap will go away you feeling refreshed? It is so simple as C, E, B.
WU: We wish to be constant, early and transient.
TAGLE: Let’s take every of these one after the other. First up, C for constant.
WU: And by constant, I imply, not haphazardly, typically early, typically late, typically, you already know, lengthy, typically quick.
TAGLE: Wu says take a web page out of some European international locations’ playbooks and choose a delegated time to relaxation.
WU: If you are going to have a siesta, do it on the identical time on daily basis.
TAGLE: Then there’s E for early.
WU: Noon, early afternoon can be glorious.
TAGLE: Wu suggests aiming for a nap between midday and three p.m. in the course of the day to keep away from sabotaging your nighttime sleep. Or for the evening owls and shift staff on the market, which means napping not less than six to eight hours earlier than your main relaxation interval to offer your self sufficient time to get sleepy once more earlier than mattress. Lastly, there’s B for transient. This one may be painful should you’re a fan of a protracted, leisurely afternoon snooze, however…
WU: Naps which can be too lengthy are, to start with, going to intrude along with your nighttime sleep, and we do not need that.
TAGLE: Taking quick naps additionally makes it extra possible that you will keep within the lighter phases of sleep and can be capable to keep away from that sleep inertia.
WU: We wish to hold it at about half an hour, hour at most. In the event you set a timer for about 45 minutes, give your self a couple of minutes to get into sleep, you may in all probability find yourself sleeping about 30-ish minutes. And that is fairly protected. That is good.
TAGLE: From there, it is nearly making the time to take that break, which, after all, is less complicated stated than executed.
WU: It’d take numerous follow at first as a result of we’re conditioned to be all the time multitasking, all the time productive, proper? It is actually arduous to really simply relaxation for half-hour in the midst of the day, however it’s so essential.
TAGLE: And sure, that was relaxation you heard, stay awake. In the event you’re not the napping sort, Wu says there’s nonetheless numerous profit in taking a daytime pause.
WU: If I go to sleep, nice. If I do not go to sleep, additionally nice. Even should you simply sort of hand around in a meditative state, do some mindfulness practices and even simply let your thoughts wander, these states are actually restful and actually particular and may be rejuvenating in an analogous approach {that a} nap may be rejuvenating.
TAGLE: For NPR’s Life Equipment, I am Andee Tagle.
CHANG: And for extra Life Equipment, try npr.org/lifekit.
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