Firstly, it’s clearly easier to nap at home than at work. That said, companies are increasingly setting up specific napping areas in search of improved performance.
Google’s London office reportedly has on-site sleep pods, complete with cashmere eye masks. Of course, napping isn’t a new, business-led concept, and Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Napoleon Bonaparte were all known nappers.
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Why should you nap? To digest a heavy Ploughman’s lunch? Not necessarily. It’s true that we endure
a mid-afternoon slump, but this occurs whether you’ve eaten or not.
It’s down to circadian rhythms, where our various physiological systems follow a 24-hour flow of ups and downs, including body temperature, which peaks in the early evening and hits a trough a couple of hours before you wake in the morning.
However, there’s also a natural dip between 1pm and 3pm, called the post-prandial dip. This drop in body temperature causes sleepiness, exacerbated if you’ve had a poor night’s kip.
That’s why this is the ideal time to take a nap. And it’s worth it – studies show naps improve task competence, memory and alertness.
A wealth of studies show that around 10 to 20 minutes is the optimum napping time. Thirty minutes is fine, too, but any longer can impair your subsequent night’s sleep.
In fact, longer naps are also associated with later meal times and increased food consumption, with a 2023 study in Obesity: The Journal of The Obesity Society revealing that longer nappers tended to have a higher body mass index, larger waists and higher blood pressure.
Importantly, you don’t need to fall into a deep slumber to enjoy the benefits. Simply switching off your mind is fine.
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What are the ideal conditions for a nap?
Key for a mid-afternoon nap is comfort. A bed is the obvious one but some experts recommend a sofa instead to avoid oversleeping. If you’re at work, just leaning back in your chair will help, although this may not be feasible while your colleagues chomp away at their meal deal. Looser-fitting apparel is preferable over tight clothing.
The room temperature should be around 16–19°C to support the body’s natural sleep-inducing drop in temperature. Tricky in a heatwave but, for most of the year, this should be doable. Socks – off or on – are good for temperature regulation.
Some nappers are fans of a ‘nappuccino’, where you consume a caffeinated drink before you nap. Caffeine takes about 20 minutes to start having an effect, which will leave you energised once your nap is over.
Though you don’t need to fall asleep, the ideal is that you try, which means darkness is preferred over light. An eye mask is useful, as well as closing the curtains. Some benefit from relaxing sounds (cue ‘Sound Escapes’ on the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast), while others briefly drift to scents like lavender. After a nap, grab five minutes to regain your senses and hydrate with a glass of water.
