Our Top Tips for Taking Restful and Restorative Naps

Naps can be a highly divisive subject, and we get it. We've had our fair share of great naps that made us feel like a million bucks, and just as many that left us feeling half-dead and desperate for even more sleep. How you feel after a nap depends in a bunch of factors, so the key is to be aware and take control of them.

No one wants to spend their time napping, only to wake up groggy and miserable. Want to learn how to make the most of your naps and feel refreshed, energized and awake when you need it most? Here are our top tips.

Time the Nap Wisely

Unfortunately, you can't always effectively time good naps on exhaustion.  Take them too late, and you run the risk of messing up your nightly sleep schedule later (or even taking a mega-nap that turns into a full night of sleep). Typically, you'll want to keep naps within five to eight hours of your wake up time. If you regularly experience a post-lunch slump, this can be an excellent time to try napping. You're likely already feeling a little hazy or nodding off, and it's early enough in the day that it's unlikely to impact your daily sleep rhythm.

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Take a Short Nap

When we feel like junk after waking up from a nap, our sleep cycles are often to blame. They consist of four different stages, including light sleep, a relaxation stage, deep sleep and REM sleep. If you happen to be woken out of sleep during the deep or REM sleep phases (when your body and brain most want to stay asleep) you're going to feel extra groggy, and perhaps even moody and disoriented. Use an alarm to keep your power naps to a maximum of 30 minutes, before you go deep enough into the sleep cycle for this to be an issue.

 

Also read about: The Hidden Meanings Behind 35 of the Most Common Dreams

 

Or a Precise 90-Minute Nap

On the other hand, using the knowledge that the average sleep cycle is about an hour and a half, you can hack your nap to do even more for you. Set a timer for the time it'll take you to fall asleep, plus 90 minutes, to dedicate yourself to a nap for the full sleep cycle. It's said that during REM sleep, brains make sense of the day, combing through our memories and the new information we've taken in, and you might feel more of these powerful benefits if you allow all of the parts of sleep to take their course before waking.

 

Create the Right Nap Environment

Sometimes, getting better sleep is all about curating the right environment. If you're the type who's trying to steal a quick nap in the car during your lunch break, this can be challenging, but not impossible. Since bright lights can make it tough to sleep, invest in a sleep mask or other ways to block light from your environment. Having a comfy place to fully lay down, with pillows and blankets, if possible, is much better than having to try to rest sitting upright in a hard seat, and weighted objects can also help you fall asleep faster. While we live by brief sleep meditations for sleep or falling asleep to white noise (or other colors of noise), you may prefer silence with earplugs. Also keep in mind that your bed is not generally the best place for naps, as associating where you sleep at night with them can make it tougher to sleep at night in the long term.

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Try a Coffee Nap

Caffeine and rest don't typically go hand in hand, but some people swear by "coffee naps." This involves drinking a cup of coffee just before your power nap. Ideally, once your alarm goes off, the caffeine from the coffee will be starting to course through your system, so you get the extra boost of energy from the rest and the drink.

 

Also read about: 5 Tricks to Get Better Sleep When You're Sick

 

Don't Worry About Actually Falling Asleep

Unfortunately, we rarely have unlimited time to nap, and the pressure to fall asleep quickly can be the main thing keep us from falling asleep. It's tough to nap when your mind and your heart are racing under this burden, but you can take a load of knowing that you'll benefit from this time even if you never actually drift off. We always refer to the MythBusters "Deadliest Catch Crabtastic Special" episode, in which they demonstrated that taking a 20-minute nap every six hours (even when they couldn't manage to fall asleep) essentially doubled their performance scores. Just closing your eyes and doing nothing for a bit can do wonders.

 

Experiment

Naps, as we've mentioned, are not one-size-fits-all. We highly recommend experimenting with different methods, between longer and shorter maps, effectively timing your naps and changing up your environment, to see what works best for you. Maybe these work wonders for you, or maybe something else is more productive for you and your lifestyle. You might just be a couple more naps away from that deep, restorative rest you've always dreamed of.

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Did you know that sleep isn't the only kind of essential rest your body needs? Click HERE to learn all about the seven varieties of rest.