How Long Should a Nap Be? Unlocking the Secrets to Restorative Rest

When it comes to napping, most of us have experienced both sides of the coin. If you’re lucky, you nap for the perfect amount of time and wake up feeling rested and refreshed. If you’re not, your nap is too short or too long and you wind up feeling more tired and groggy than you did before.

When done right, napping offers a variety of health benefits, including increased alertness, improved focus, boosted mood, better memory and more. But how long should a nap be, anyway? Understanding the different stages of sleep, along with how various nap lengths affect your body, can help you optimize your napping strategy. 

The Science of Sleep and Napping

Sleep can be grouped into two categories: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep. Within these categories are four stages.

• Stage 1 NREM sleep is the lightest sleep, and usually only lasts a few minutes. It makes up about 5% of sleep time.
• Stage 2 NREM sleep is slightly deeper than stage 1, and your brain waves start to slow down. About 45% of sleep time is spent in this stage.
• Stage 3 NREM sleep is the deepest stage of non-REM sleep. It makes up about 25% of your sleep time, and your body uses it to repair and rejuvenate. You won’t feel rested if you don’t get enough stage 3 NREM sleep.
• Stage 4 REM sleep, which also makes up about 25% of your sleep time is when you dream. 

The longer you sleep, the further you advance through these four stages. This means which stages of sleep a nap encompasses depends largely on the length of the nap, although your age may also be a factor; young adults typically reach NREM and REM stages of sleep during a longer nap, while older adults tend to stay in the lighter NREM stages.

Nap Lengths and Their Benefits

How long should a nap be to unlock health benefits? It depends on what you’re hoping to achieve with your nap.

• A 20-minute nap, also known as a “power nap” or “disco nap” may help increase alertness and elevate energy levels.
• A 30-minute nap may help improve cognitive function and boost your mood.
• A 60-minute nap may help enhance memory consolidation and learning.
• A 90-minute nap can include a full cycle through all four sleep stages, and may help improve creativity and emotional regulation.

Potential Drawbacks of Napping

If you’ve ever struggled to wake up after a long nap, you’ve likely experienced sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is a temporary disorientation and decline in ability to function and/or mood after awakening from sleep. It can slow down your reaction time, thinking speed, reasoning, remembering and learning. These symptoms typically last 30 to 60 minutes after waking but may linger for up to two hours.

To avoid sleep inertia, experts suggest you wake up from a nap after about 20 minutes (before going into deeper sleep) or about 90 minutes (predicted to be the end of a sleep cycle). These timeframes maximize your odds of waking up from the light stages of sleep, when grogginess is less likely.

Another drawback of daytime napping? It may affect your ability to sleep at night. As tired as you may be, sometimes it’s worth toughing it out to avoid tossing and turning at bedtime.

Tips for Successful Napping

Now that you know how long a nap should be, you can take steps to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. To nap successfully, you should:

• Create an environment that’s conducive to good sleep: dark, quiet and cool. Blackout shades or a sleep mask can be used to block out daylight, while ear plugs or white noise can drown out distractions. Lowering the thermostat and/or using a fan can help with temperature regulation.
• Make sure you’re sleeping on a quality mattress that provides the comfort and support you need for optimal rest. The Sedona Elite, Aurora Luxe Cooling, Signature Hybrid, and Copperflex mattresses from Brooklyn Bedding combine high-tech materials and thoughtful design to accommodate your unique sleep needs.
• Brooklyn Bedding knows that no one mattress can be a perfect fit for everyone. As actual mattress manufacturers, the company constructs beds in thoughtfully engineered layers, with every layer serving either a comfort, support or cooling purpose that meets a specific consumer need. Brooklyn Bedding offers a 120-night comfort trial along with free shipping and our generous return policy—for every mattress size and every price point. Not only that, but we also offer a limited lifetime warranty on each and every mattress.
• The Sedona Elite is a hybrid mattress that features ultra plush top layers, individually encased coils for zoned support and foam made with a cutting-edge infusion of copper that gives you antimicrobial and cooling benefits.
• The Aurora Luxe Cooling features a top comfort layer infused with cooling fibers that are clinically proven to absorb excess body heat and release heat back to you as needed.
• The Signature Hybrid comes in three options to meet your personal preferences (soft, medium and firm) and an optional Cloud Cooling Pillow Top for high-tech cooling comfort.
• The Copperflex is where quality and affordability meet, providing a combination of high-quality materials and advanced engineering that ensures consistent comfort and support for years to come.
• Since your nap should ideally last either 20 or 90 minutes, you’ll want to set an alarm to avoid oversleeping.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol before napping, since both can disrupt your sleep cycle.
• Choose a time of day that works with your schedule so that you can be rested when you tackle your to-do list, work shift or whatever life throws at you.

Nap Your Way to a Better Day

Sometimes all you need is a little nap to help you power through. When you know how long a nap should be and have a quality mattress on which to take it, you can use naptime as a secret weapon to supercharge your productivity (or at least help you get through the day without needing to guzzle energy drinks).