Everyone tends to know how important sleep is but a lot of people tend to not have a lot of knowledge of how important naps are. Some people love them and others hate them or they think napping as a whole is a bad thing and others tend to think they are great. But the real question is who is right? And in reality the answer is everyone is correct depending on the situation.
The key answer is if you can easily fall asleep between 11 am and 3 p.m. in a comfortable place with the lights out for exactly 20 minutes then yes a nap can work wonders for you, if not then you are better off just staying awake and powering through. Our circadian rhythm has two natural stages of sleepiness which is during the middle of the night and the other one is post lunch. So whether you believe in napping or not you can eliminate the guilt you feel when you start to lose focus early in the afternoon. If you have a quiet place to lay down you shouldn’t fight the feeling to nap.
If you want to get the maximum benefit out of your next nap then I would suggest the following
#1 The time matters
This may sound contradictory but the proper nap length is either 20-30 minutes or 90 minutes. It will take you 90 minutes to go through the full REM sleep cycle which allows you to have the same benefits of having a full 8 hours of sleep. If you wanted to take a short nap then I’d suggest taking a nap for 20 minutes because you will be less likely to deal with sleep inertia which makes you feel groggy when you wake up.
#2 Nap in the right evnorinment
I know for myself sometimes being at school it is hard for me to get time to nap because during the day is when people are most active and more importantly the sun is out. This causes my room to not be completely dark causing it to be hard for me to go to sleep. I’d suggest finding a room with the least distractions.
#3 Know when to nap and when to power through
Don’t nap too late in the day if it is after 3 p.m. because if you do then your more than likely going to shorten your ability to fall asleep at night. Often times when I get tired after 3 p.m. I try to go to the gym or take a walk to wake myself up.
Q's Body Blueprint 