The Coffee Nap

Have you heard of the coffee nap?

It combines two of my favorite things: coffee, and naps. I used to nap a lot in high school, sometimes one to two hours every afternoon! As I got older I realized that was not ideal for good sleep at night, so I stopped. But as we all know, sometimes you just need to nap.

What I’ve found is that you really only need a good power nap. A perfect power nap is about 20 minutes. This brief spurt of relaxation can improve your mental alertness, mood, and increase your overall performance. A 20 minute nap means that you hit the light stages of sleep. A nap longer than 30 minutes means that you may reach the deeper stages of sleep, and therefore wake up feeling groggy and not refreshed.

The coffee nap raises the bar a little bit. The concept is simple: drink a cup of coffee, then take a power nap. The caffeine must pass through your stomach and part of your small intestine before it is absorbed, so it may not reach your blood stream and then your brain for about 20 minutes. Caffeine competes with a chemical in your brain called adenosine, which can make you feel tired if enough accumulates. Sleeping clears adenosine, so the combination of the two is just perfect. Just remember that the effect is diminished with longer naps.

What is the key to a good power nap? First, be in the right frame of mind. Be READY to nap. Second, make sure you control your temperature. You can’t be too hot and you can’t be too cold. Third, support your head and neck. What’s worse than a stiff neck?

There are plenty of famous nappers, including John F Kennedy, Albert Einstein, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Some napped to make up for their less than restful nights, and some napped to improve their mental alertness. Whatever the reason, I get it!

So next time your eyes feel a little heavy, try a coffee nap. Or just a regular nap. I doubt you will regret it.