Why are naps good for you?

Stuart Kirk, clinic manager at Nuffield Health Norwich Fitness and Wellbeing Centre, says there are plenty of benefits to napping right, such as increased alertness for the afternoon, improved cognitive function and the fact that it can help us beat the effects of poor sleep the night before.

And Theresa Schnorbach, a psychologist and sleep scientist who works with Emma, points out that napping has also been shown to help with emotional control and improved learning.

She adds: “We feel tired due to our homeostatic sleep drive. This is the pressure we feel when we need to sleep. It gradually rises through the day, but if we have a poor night’s sleep, it may be present earlier. Napping can help to relieve and reset this pressure, allowing you to once again attain a regular sleeping rhythm.

“How much a nap could benefit you will also often depend on a few factors, such as age or your pre-existing relationship with sleep. For example, people tend to need less sleep when they’re older and also tend to wake up more regularly at night, so elderly people may find the need to nap during the day to make up for this missed sleep, which is totally normal.”

But Kirk adds a caveat: if your sleep at night is regularly poor, napping isn’t a magic pill.

He explains: “It’s important to evaluate what your current sleep habits are like before considering napping. Is the quality of your sleep optimal? If the quality of your nighttime sleep is poor, you may want to address this first. Limiting caffeine and alcohol intake before bed, ensuring you exercise regularly and having a restful sleep environment are all areas that are important for good sleep hygiene.”

Further to that, if you’ve got a condition like insomnia, Schnorbach says napping can make it worse because it can lower the sleep pressure that works to your benefit.

She adds: “If you’re getting the right amount of quality sleep at night, you shouldn’t really need to be napping. The odd nap here or there is fine, but if you’re finding yourself regularly tired during the day or you require frequent naps and still feel tired, I recommend investigating what could be causing this sleep deprivation and tackling that, rather than relying on a daily nap routine.”

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