How to Nap to Feel Your Best

Alexa L. on 24th Sep 2019

Hello, and welcome back to Sleep Hacks where we give you simple tips to sleep better at night so you can go through your days as your best self. My name is Alexa, and today in this episode we are going to dive into the best way to nap, and no the answer is not to fall asleep for five hours and wake up in time for bedtime.. And go back to sleep again. Do you think back to your childhood self with complete disappointment about how little you cared for naps and how much took them for granted? Yeah, me too. I know as adults. We don't always get a chance to nap but when you do it's important to take advantage of it in a way that helps you thrive through every day instead of leaving you feeling groggy for three hours after.

First it's important to understand whether they fall into the Napper or non Napper categories. The best way to figure this out is to think about how you feel after you nap. So a napper can easily fall asleep and come out of sleep on their own and sometimes not even with an alarm. Yeah, that sounds like one in a million but surprisingly it's 40% of sleepers.

Non-nappers are going to have a harder time with naps. They might be able to fall asleep, but their sleep is a deeper sleep which makes it harder for them to come out of it, which means alarms maybe a few alarms. Now being a napper or non-napper doesn't mean that you should or shouldn't take naps, it just means that you might have to adjust for what is best for your body.

Now, let's talk ideal nap length: the general consensus is about 20 to 30 minutes, but just like every other component of sleep everything is different for the individual person. Researchers have also suggested up to 90 minutes because that encompasses a full sleep cycle which could be beneficial for people who don't feel like 30 minutes is quite enough for them. When you're trying to figure out what kind of nap works best for you, honestly, it's going to take a little experimentation, which doesn't sound too bad right? Just a few naps here and there.

Aside from just helping you recharge midday, naps can actually be very crucial to your physical health. So whether your body is fighting off an infection or boosting your immune health or helping you stay sane and healthy during travel, naps can be really really awesome to help you feel better at the end of whatever it is you're fighting. And let's not forget that just getting enough rest at night is priority, but sometimes we fall short there and that's where naps come in.

I know that I used to be a terrible napper. I would fall asleep for four hours and feel like crap for the rest of the day and I couldn't understand why, because I thought that naps were supposed to fix everything! Well, I learned it was a hard thing to hear, that I had to shorten my naps. But when I shorten my naps to about 20 minutes, I was able to wake up and feel ready to get back to work. And that is huge.

Okay. I hope you guys feel prepared to nap in a way that can help you get through your day so you can then go get snugly in bed. If you like this video. Give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all things Sleep Hacks. See you next time and sleep well.