Pod Insights Life Kit Plus How to take a refreshing nap (without ending up more tired) About this episode Naps can offer significant benefits, from emotional regulation to improving memory and athletic performance. But there are right and wrong ways to snooze. A sleep psychologist and a sleep physician explain the factors of the perfect nap and the importance of daytime rest. This episode originally published Feb. 26, 2024. Take our survey at npr.org/lifekitsurvey. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here. Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at [email protected] the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:18 Marielle Segarra? You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:23 Marielle Segarra? Hey, it's Marielle. Before we start the episode, I want to thank you for listening to Life Kit. And to ask you a favor, we'd love to know what you think about the podcast. Help us out. Tell us what you like and how we can improve by completing a short anonymous survey at npr.org/lifekitsurvey. We'll also have a link in our episode description. And thank you.
0:49 Marielle Segarra? So every time I take a nap, it's the same routine. You know, I'm on my couch, my eyes start closing, and I decide, screw it, I'm going all in. This nap may mess me up later, but there is nowhere else in the world I'd rather be right now. And it is happening. I don't even set an alarm. And then I wake up, like, four hours later, feeling groggy, often a little sad and guilty for having slept so long, so close to my bedtime. So, look, it turns out, we're actually wired to take some kind of break or rest during the day, which can include naps. Our body's internal clock, our circadian rhythm, is built to have these natural dips.
1:32 Speaker 02 Whether it's because the midday sun is too hot for us hunter-gatherers to, you know, be functioning at that time, for whatever reason, we evolved to have this little early afternoon dip. And if we sort of ride that dip and take our nap as we're feeling that, that's where we're going to get the most benefit out of it. Like, go with your body instead of against your body.
1:55 Marielle Segarra? Jade Wu is a sleep medicine specialist and researcher based in North Carolina and the author of the book Hello, Sleep. She says when done right, a nap can offer a lot of mental and emotional benefits.
2:06 Speaker 02 I like to call it kind of a performance-enhancing drug without the drug.
2:12 Speaker 02 It's good for our emotion regulation. It makes us less biased towards negative stimuli and more flexible in our thinking. And things that you learn before you went and took a nap are more solidly embedded in your brain after you wake up from the nap.
2:28 Marielle Segarra? And there are a ton of physical benefits, too.
2:30 Speaker 02 So athletes will often use a nap to really boost their performance. And they'll find that they have more power, you know, they have more stamina, they feel fatigue less quickly. So napping really can all around benefit our performance and our overall health.
2:44 Marielle Segarra? So, OK, this made me feel a lot better. But she says it's also true that there are right and wrong ways to nap. And yeah, I think I'm doing it wrong. On this episode of Life Kit, reporter Andy Tagel talks to Jade and to a sleep physician on how and why to take better naps. They'll talk sleep science, ideal nap routines, and the importance of rest no matter when your head hits the pillow.
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4:38 Speaker 04 Takeaway one, naps are supplemental sleep.
4:44 Speaker 04 Okay, to start fellow sleepyheads, let's quickly go over some basics. Like, what even counts as a nap?
4:51 Speaker 02 That's actually a more complicated question than you would think. There's not really a consensus definition. That's why sometimes you see on TikTok, people are like, oh, let's play a nap roulette. Is it going to be a 30-minute refresher? Or is it going to be a four-hour journey to the astral plane? Who knows? Let's go.
5:09 Speaker 04 Again, that's sleep psychologist and researcher Jade Wu.
5:12 Speaker 05 A nap is, that's a good question.
5:14 Speaker 04 And that's Seema Khosla, a sleep medicine physician practicing in Fargo, North Dakota, and the host of Talking Sleep, a podcast from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
5:25 Speaker 05 I would think of a nap as a period of time where you're sleeping that is not at the same time as your regular sleep period. And the reason I phrase it that way is even though most of us sleep at night and we think about napping during the day, for our shift workers, they may be sleeping during the day and then may take a nap at night.
5:45 Speaker 04 Great point to start us off, Seema. Let's all keep that in mind moving forward. Jade, anything to add?
5:51 Speaker 02 So I don't want to make it seem like, oh, naps are so awesome that you should just take, you know, quick naps all day long and not worry about your nighttime sleep. Because nighttime sleep is still the bedrock of when you get your deep sleep and the restorative continuous sleep that your body really needs. So I would start by prioritizing locking down nighttime sleep. And then on top of that, think of napping like a bonus.
6:16 Speaker 04 Got it. So just so we're all clear here, a nap should be a supplemental, short period of sleep. An appetizer, or an appetizer, if you will, to your full core sleep session that combined should help you achieve the seven to nine hours of daily sleep recommended for most adults. Now, why do we crave naps? Let's go back to that natural dip in energy. The timing of our sleep is based on two drives. The first is our homeostatic sleep drive, also known as sleep pressure, which builds from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed. Other is your circadian rhythm. You probably remember this from science class or any of the other many great Life Kit episodes on sleep.
7:00 Speaker 04 But if not, here's a quick refresher.
7:02 Speaker 02 Your circadian system is a network of clocks, billions of clocks. Like, most of your cells have clocks, your organ systems, your hormonal rhythms have clocks. Everything in your body runs on a clock. And all of these clocks are overseen by a master clock in your brain. And this master clock can do its job the best when it knows what time it is and it can sort of keep time on a consistent rhythm.
7:27 Speaker 04 So all of our internal clocks have that natural dip in energy. But the thing is, everyone's rhythm is a little bit different, which leads us to takeaway two. Naps are not for all. Yes, siestas are sweet, but they're not always the answer or always possible for everyone. So let's check in to make sure you even need a nap. Tell me, are you sleepy or are you tired?
7:53 Speaker 02 Tired and sleepy are due to different causes and therefore they require different cures.
7:59 Speaker 04 Sleepy is pretty straightforward.
8:01 Speaker 02 Your eyelids are heavy, you're yawning, you're like, oh yeah, I could fall asleep pretty quickly, pretty soon.
8:07 Speaker 04 But tired?
8:08 Speaker 02 Tired is everything else.
8:11 Speaker 04 Maybe you think you need a nap, but really you're just feeling unmotivated at work or fed up with your partner. Maybe you're anxious about finances or in need of fresh air or more light or maybe you're just dehydrated.
8:24 Speaker 02 When we make that distinction, then we know where to look for the cure. You know, do I need to drink more water or do I need to go take a nap?
8:31 Speaker 04 As is so often the case here at Life Kit, what it comes down to is simple. Just listen to your body.
8:39 Speaker 04 For me, my body is almost always calling for sleep. I hit a quick snooze just as often as I can. For others, naps might not be desired or even possible at all. Back to that internal clock.
8:53 Speaker 02 Not everybody has to nap and not everybody can nap. Some people's circadian rhythms just are so strongly tuned in such a way that, you know, just we do not sleep during the day. We only sleep when it's dark at night, and that's perfectly fine.
9:09 Speaker 04 So maybe your internal master clock is set to run on a straight eight hours of sleep through the night. Or maybe you're more like me and are wound for a disco nap just about every day. Knowing what you are can help you plan accordingly.
9:20 Speaker 05 And that may change over time, too. You know, our sleep needs, you know, in broad terms, we think seven to nine hours, but there's some variability. And we've all experienced that, where you sleep for 10 hours or 12 hours when you're not feeling well. Just as we, you know, sometimes if you haven't done a whole lot during the day, you haven't been really physically active or mentally active, maybe you don't need as much sleep that night.
9:43 Speaker 04 Now, it's important to note that there are also people who shouldn't take a nap. Like if you suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders, experience poor quality sleep at night, or...
9:53 Speaker 05 If you are somebody that struggles to fall asleep at night, then perhaps avoiding the nap is the right advice for you.
10:01 Speaker 04 So if you have any concerns about your sleep, definitely consult your doctor before making changes to your sleep schedule.
10:10 Speaker 04 Now, once you've taken stock and decided it is indeed nap o'clock, we'll move to takeaway three. Taking a great nap is as simple as C-E-B.
10:22 Speaker 04 Ever woken up from a nap and felt more tired? And then sat up and been like, wait, what planet am I on?
10:28 Speaker 05 If you wake up from deep sleep, sometimes you feel almost drunk from sleep. The term that we use is called sleep inertia. Where that sleep just follows you into wakefulness.
10:42 Speaker 04 Sleep inertia is a sign that you're overshooting your napping mark. That can slow you down in the short term and potentially sabotage your nighttime sleep in the long run. How do you avoid that? Keep these three simple parameters in mind.
10:56 Speaker 02 We want to be consistent and early and brief.
11:00 Speaker 04 Let's take each of those one by one. First up, C, consistent.
11:05 Speaker 02 I mean, not haphazardly, sometimes early, sometimes late, sometimes, you know, long, sometimes short. We want to be, you know, taking a leaf out of the Mediterranean cultures. If you're gonna have a siesta, do it at the same time every day.
11:18 Speaker 04 Then there's E for early.
11:20 Speaker 02 Midday, early afternoon would be excellent.
11:23 Speaker 04 Jade suggests aiming for a nap between noon and 3:00 PM during the day. Or for the night owls and shift workers out there.
11:29 Speaker 05 Usually we want you six hours or more before your, your larger sleep period. It's that if you're going to take a nap, have it done by then.
11:38 Speaker 04 And finally, there's B for brief. This one might be painful if you're a fan of a long, leisurely afternoon snooze, but...
11:47 Speaker 05 If you're taking a two-hour nap, that almost becomes an additional sleep period. And then you could argue that maybe you're engaging in what's called polyphasic sleep, where you're doing a little bit at night, a little bit during the day, you're not doing it all at once.
12:02 Speaker 04 So Jade says 30 minutes to an hour tops.
12:05 Speaker 02 If you set a timer for about 45 minutes, give yourself a few minutes to get into sleep, you'll probably end up sleeping about 30-ish minutes. And that's pretty safe, that's good.
12:14 Speaker 04 Seema's version of brief is even briefer.
12:17 Speaker 05 A short nap is typically what we recommend, you know, 10 or 20 minutes. And the idea behind that is that you probably will remain in the lighter phases of sleep rather than getting into the deeper phases of sleep where sometimes it's a little bit harder to wake up.
12:33 Speaker 04 A quick note here, every phase of sleep is important. If you do any sort of sleep tracking, you might have noticed...
12:40 Speaker 05 There is this assumption that only the deep sleep is what we want. And there's something wrong if we are only in, you know, quote unquote, "light sleep." But the reality is that we need it all. They all have a job to do and they work together. It helps with our immune system, but it also helps with our brain.
12:59 Speaker 04 But for quick naps, it's best and more likely to stay in lighter phases of sleep. If you find yourself falling asleep quickly and dipping into deep sleep with only 30 minutes of napping.
13:10 Speaker 02 That's actually a sign that you're not getting enough sleep at night. So that's just a symptom that your brain is so desperate to get into deep sleep that even a 30-minute nap will get you there.
13:21 Speaker 04 A lot of dreaming during naptime could be another canary in the coal mine. Your body might just be compensating for not enough REM sleep during the night, or...
13:30 Speaker 02 If you really consistently and often fall asleep during the day and go directly into REM, that might mean you have narcolepsy.
13:37 Speaker 04 All this to say again, listen to your body and do what you can to set yourself up for success. We'll get more into how to do that right after the break.
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14:49 Speaker 04 Okay, sleepyheads, we're back with more Life Kit.
14:53 Speaker 04 In our quest to better naps, let's also make sure we're practicing overall good sleep hygiene, shall we? That brings us to takeaway four.
15:03 Speaker 04 Stop committing sleep sabotage.
15:07 Speaker 04 For the very best of naps, be aware of daytime habits that get in the way of good sleep. All right, it's time to talk about the great big, energy-drink-sized elephant in the room.
15:19 Speaker 05 Sometimes when we are chronically sleep deprived, we are in survival mode. So then it's, okay, I've got to get through that afternoon hump, I'm going to have some caffeine. And maybe we overdo, so then that sabotages our attempts to fall asleep at night.
15:32 Speaker 04 Do you resemble that statement? I know I do. If you want better naps, it's important to be conscious about your caffeine consumption. And we have a Life Kit episode on exactly how to do that, if you're interested. But the two can coexist. For example, some people, and by some people, I do mean me, swear by caffeine naps. That's when you throw back a Diet Coke right before naptime, so by the time you wake up, you feel extra energized and ready to go. And there are studies that back up this practice. But Jade says, exercise caution.
16:04 Speaker 02 Between having caffeine that late and having a nap, you might be setting yourself up to, you know, have difficulty falling asleep that night.
16:11 Speaker 04 And Seema agrees. Stay mindful and curious about how caffeine affects your sleep.
16:16 Speaker 05 And it doesn't have to be all or none, right? You don't have to have 200mg of caffeine and then take a nap. You could have like 60 and then take a nap.
16:24 Speaker 04 And then there's how we set up our sleep space. Let's say you're trying to nap in your car over your lunch break.
16:30 Speaker 05 What does that look like? And how can we optimize it? If you are intentionally going to take a nap, is it worth bringing a pillow and a blanket and an eye mask, right? And some earplugs?
16:44 Speaker 04 Another tip that was hard for this napper to hear? Keep the same bedtime and wake time on weekends. Otherwise...
16:53 Speaker 02 You're doing social jet lag. So you live in San Diego. So if you get up three hours later than usual on weekends, it's like you've flown from New York to San Diego and back over the course of that weekend. That does not feel good, right? I'm sure you've done that trip. That jet lag is just brutal.
17:14 Speaker 04 As Jade puts it, maintaining a robust circadian clock allows you to cope and recover better from all sorts of stressors. So the occasional unideal sleep situation, like actually getting on an airplane and switching time zones, for example, can be that much easier to manage. Speaking of travel, we've arrived at our final destination. Takeaway five, create a mini rest ritual. Because even without napping, daytime rest is crucial to nighttime sleep. This goes back to our caveman brains and that built-in circadian dip in energy we all experience in the middle of the day. Honoring that pause lets your brain know it's okay to settle down at night.
17:59 Speaker 04 If you spend your whole day going 100 miles an hour...
18:02 Speaker 02 That is sending the message to our bodies that it's not safe to fall asleep because the only reason why you're going, going, going all day without stopping must be because there's a saber-tooth tiger on your tail, right? So if that's the case, you better not fall asleep and certainly not into deep sleep. So that's why daytime rest, even if you don't fall asleep during the day for a full nap, daytime rest is really important.
18:26 Speaker 04 That's right. Even if you don't fall asleep. I know this is a hard one, especially if you're desperate for sleep and have precious little time before your fussy baby is up again, or if you only have exactly 30 minutes of a lunch break. I think sometimes if you put a time limit, that itself is stressful. Super anxiety-inducing, yeah. Right? Because you're like, okay, has it been 10 minutes? Can I peek? Can I look at my watch? I don't know. The fix is to reframe your thinking around your rest period. To start, some rebranding could be helpful. Like, what does it take exactly to achieve a power nap?
19:02 Speaker 05 I think it's because we say it's a power nap.
19:04 Speaker 04 Okay, well, just declare it. Declaring it makes it so.
19:07 Speaker 05 I think so. I think so, because I'm not sure that there has been any rigorous study on it. And I think it's more because we believe that it restores us. So whatever the duration of time is a short amount of restorative sleep that makes us feel better. Better afterwards.
19:23 Speaker 04 Okay, simple enough. I'm declaring all my naps moving forward.
19:28 Speaker 04 So, option one, fake it till you make it. Option two, maybe you don't have to sleep at all.
19:35 Speaker 02 If I fall asleep, great. If I don't fall asleep, also great. But what I'm not going to do is check my email, scroll through social media, do chores, or do any of those things that further overstimulate me. What you need is true rest. So even if you don't fall asleep, even if you just kind of hang out in a meditative state, or do some mindfulness practices, or even just let your mind wander. We know from brain scanning studies that those states are really restful and really special, and can be rejuvenating in a similar way that a nap can be rejuvenating.
20:12 Speaker 04 If you have a nighttime routine that helps you wind down.
20:15 Speaker 05 You can do something similar, sort of like a short version of that, to ease you into your nap, particularly if it's the same place. Right? That if you work from home and you are able to sleep in your bedroom, and you usually do like a 10-minute meditation before you go to bed, maybe do a five-minute meditation before you take a nap.
20:33 Speaker 04 Jade plays Beethoven to cue nap time for her kids and herself. Seema is a fan of box breathing.
20:40 Speaker 05 You breathe in for four seconds, and you hold for four seconds, and you breathe out for four seconds, and you hold for four seconds.
20:47 Speaker 04 Audiobooks and podcasts are another favorite for winding down. We might be able to help you there.
20:52 Speaker 02 And I'm not just saying that because we're on a podcast right now, but truly NPR is a really good free bedtime podcast for, you know, station.
21:00 Speaker 04 No matter what relaxation method you choose, remember, you can only do what you can do.
21:06 Speaker 02 Sometimes it's not possible to nap and rest in the ideal way that we've talked about. But it's always possible to prioritize your health and wellness, even in little ways.
21:20 Speaker 04 Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. Nap when you can, where you can, the best you can. But the key here is, you just really need and deserve to rest.
21:31 Speaker 02 Even if it's just for just a tiny bit of time, get out of your head into your body. And whatever tasks you can do, being mindful, do that. You know, as you walk from your car to the office, from your car to the grocery store, walk mindfully, be in that moment with your body, and that goes a long way.
21:54 Speaker 04 OK, let's recap softly and slowly, just in case any of you are using this podcast to settle down for your early afternoon snooze. Takeaway one, naps are supplemental to your nighttime routine, not a replacement. Takeaway two, not everyone needs a nap, so if it's not happening, don't stress it. Takeaway three, aim for naps that are C-E-B, consistent, early, and brief. Takeaway four, stop committing sleep sabotage. For the very best of naps, be intentional about all of your sleep. Takeaway five, daytime rest is crucial for nighttime sleep.
22:35 Speaker 04 Even if a nap isn't possible, make time for a daily ritual of rest.
22:48 Marielle Segarra? That was Life Kit reporter Andy Tagle. And that's our show. Hey, did you know that Life Kit has its own newsletter? I think you're going to like it. We have so many smart, supportive listeners that send us amazing tips of their own, and they are often featured in our weekly newsletter. So if you want to be part of that community, subscribe at npr.org/lifekitnewsletter. This episode of Life Kit was produced by Andy Tagle. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan, and our digital editor is Malika Gharib. Megan Cain is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Claire Marie Schneider, Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Gilly Moon and Stacy Abbott. I'm Marielle Segarra.
23:33 Marielle Segarra? Thank you for listening.
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