How To Take a Power Nap: Tips and Benefits

Mid-day naps in the 10- to 30-minute range are often called power naps because they quickly boost your energy and alertness. You can take a power nap by setting a timer for about 20 minutes in a dark, quiet, and cool room no later than 3 p.m.

Naps are short durations of daytime sleep, usually lasting 10 minutes to a few hours. Power naps are a great way to recharge your energy levels quickly if you feel sleepy in the middle of the day after a late night. Power naps can also help you beat the afternoon slump by improving your memory and thinking power.

Napping is not just for little kids. Adults can also benefit from naps. A power nap can improve your alertness, memory, and overall health.

Can Help Increase Alertness  

The most significant benefit of taking a power nap is that it can help you feel more alert hours after you wake up. This helps reduce daytime fatigue and improves your brain function.

Power naps keep you in a lighter stage of sleep that helps recharge your brain and decrease sleepiness. Because you do not go into a deep sleep during a power nap, you will also avoid waking up too groggy and disoriented—known as sleep inertia. 

May Improve Cognition

The longer you are awake, the less efficiently your brain works, making it tough to think straight and focus. A power nap can help your brain recharge and can improve cognition (thinking, perception, and reasoning). 

May Improve Memory

Napping can help improve long-term memory needed to help you function throughout the day. Research has shown that taking short naps can help improve executive functioning skills—like memory and self-control—thanks to the brain becoming more alert and less sleepy.

One study of 23 young adults found that taking a 30-minute afternoon nap helped improve brain speed when completing procedural memory tasks.

May Boost the Immune System

While not well studied, power naps may help boost your immune system and reduce stress. In one study, researchers restricted 11 young men’s sleep to cause sleep deprivation. The following day, participants either took 30-minute naps in the morning and afternoon or did not nap.

The authors found that participants in the napping group had normal biomarker levels linked to inflammation and stress. The participants who did not nap had elevated levels. This means that taking a power nap may help you decrease your chances of getting sick, but more high-quality research is needed to draw hard conclusions.

A power nap should ideally be about 20 minutes and not exceed 30 minutes. Taking a 20-minute power nap gives you enough time to increase alertness in a light sleep stage, but it should not make you tired when you wake up.

Sleeping for more than 30 minutes can have the opposite effect of an energizing power nap because you may wake up in a deep sleep stage. Waking up from a deep sleep can cause sleep inertia, which makes you feel groggy and disoriented. 

Sleeping less than 20 minutes also will not make it difficult to fall asleep later on because it will not reduce your homeostatic sleep drive. This drive builds throughout the day and pressures your body to sleep, forcing you to get some shut-eye at night.

Ready to take a quick snooze? Here are some power nap best practices for successful napping: 

• Nap midday: Napping too late can make it hard to fall asleep later. Sleep researchers suggest napping during the midpoint of your day and after lunch—typically between 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
• Prepare your space: Make sure the room is dark, quiet, and cool to help you fall asleep quickly and get the most out of your nap time. You can also use an eye mask or earplugs if the room is too bright or loud.
• Rest on a couch or chair: Avoid sleeping in your comfy bed if you have trouble waking up from a nap. Opt for a place you do not want to sleep for more than 30 minutes.
• Set an alarm: A power nap should be about 20 minutes. Timing your nap helps you avoid oversleeping so you stay in a lighter sleep stage and avoid waking up disoriented. 
• Try a coffee nap: Drinking coffee or other caffeinated beverages before a 30-minute nap gives the caffeine time to kick in and enough time for your nap to improve alertness. You may feel even more alert and refreshed when you wake up.

Napping usually does not affect nighttime sleep, but napping too long or late in the day can make it difficult to fall asleep at night. Napping for 30-90 minutes also increases your risk of waking up in a deeper sleep stage, which causes sleep inertia.

Sleep inertia can last 30-60 minutes after waking up, making it difficult to wake up, think, learn, and remember things. Sleep-deprived people may also reach deep sleep quicker when they nap, making it hard to wake up or feel alert after shorter naps.  

While research is limited, studies have also linked napping for 60 or more minutes to an increased risk of certain health conditions. One study in China found women over 45 years old who napped for more than 90 minutes had an increased risk of hypertension (high blood pressure). Napping did not have the same effect on men. A large research analysis also found people who nap for more than 60 minutes a day had an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. 

More research is needed to find out exactly how much napping contributes to these health conditions or if it is simply that people with these conditions are more likely to nap. Research has found that napping is more common in people with anxiety, high blood pressure, and diabetes. 

Power naps can be an excellent tool to boost energy and productivity during the workday, but naps are not great for everyone. Healthcare providers recommend people with insomnia avoid naps. Insomnia is a sleep disorder that makes it difficult to fall, stay, or get enough quality sleep.

Power napping also is not ideal if you work night shifts. Night shift workers benefit more from prophylactic naps, or longer naps that put you into a deep sleep and reduce the pressure to sleep at night. Research has shown nurses were more alert during their night shift after taking a 90-minute nap between 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., a 2.5-hour nap between 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., and a 3-hour nap between 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Naps should not replace a good night’s sleep, and most adults should still get 7-9 hours each night. If you need to nap every day to function because you are exhausted or have trouble staying awake, talk to a healthcare provider. You may have an underlying health condition that naps cannot treat, like narcolepsy.

Sleep disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia can cause daytime fatigue that a nap will not solve. Sleep apnea causes people to stop breathing while they sleep, which makes it challenging to get enough quality sleep. Excessive daytime sleepiness is the top symptom of sleep apnea.

You may experience other symptoms like restless sleep, snoring, and gasping for air while sleeping. Napping may also make symptoms of insomnia worse.

Power naps are quick, mid-day naps that typically last 10-30 minutes. Taking a 20-minute power nap can help you feel reenergized, but it helps you avoid deep sleep that makes you groggy when you wake up.

Beyond feeling more alert, power naps can also help improve your thinking power and memory. Most people can benefit from a power nap without issues, but you should avoid napping if you have insomnia.