People of all ages can benefit from short naps

NAPPING: isn’t just for babies. Studies show that an afternoon nap is great for adults, too. There’s no need to feel lazy for indulging in daytime sleep. A short nap in the mid-afternoon can boost memory, improve job performance, lift your mood, make you more alert, and ease stress. Cozy up to these nap benefits!

Some people swear by an afternoon nap – whether it is to catch up on lost sleep or to help them feel more alert for the afternoon ahead.

Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, pictured, and Leonardo Da Vinci were all famous nappers. Napping is a great way to feel more rested and alert – and some research shows it can benefit our cognitive function.

However, you may want to consider how long you have to sleep before heading to bed for your midday nap.

If you need to be alert right after waking up (for example, if you’re catching a few extra minutes of sleep during your lunch break), so-called ‘power naps’ of 10-30 minutes are recommended.

Longer naps may cause some initial drowsiness – though they keep sleepiness at bay longer.

But drinking coffee directly before a nap may help you wake up without feeling drowsy while also boosting your alertness. While short naps are great for increasing energy, longer naps are both more restorative and beneficial for learning. For example, they improve activation of the hippocampus – an area of the brain important for learning and memory. A one or two hour afternoon nap is shown to benefit both your motor skills and your ability to recall facts and events.

A study from China has even suggested that regular afternoon napping is linked to better cognitive function in older adults. The researchers asked 2,200 over-70s about their napping habits before having them undergo a series of cognitive tests which measured things like memory and language skills.

They found that those who usually napped were less likely to have cognitive impairments than those who didn’t.

This was true regardless of age or level of education.

But nap length may play a role here – a similar study showed that those who usually napped for 30-90 minutes had better overall cognition compared to those who napped for longer or shorter, or who didn’t nap at all.

The reasons why short naps are so beneficial for alertness and focus are not well understood.

It’s possible that napping helps the brain clean up sleep-inducing waste products that would otherwise inhibit brain activity, and that they replenish the brain’s energy stores. Short naps may also help improve your attention by letting particularly sleepy areas of the brain recover, thereby preventing instability in the brain’s networks.

If you’re finding that your attention span is wavering in the afternoon while working from home, perhaps try squeezing a nap into your lunch break. Short naps are great at improving alertness and attention – and if you have time for a longer nap, this can support memory and learning.