How long should a nap be? We asked an expert
Photo: JGI/Jamie Grill/Blend Images/Getty Images/Tetra images RF My dad and I have a long-running dispute over a simple question: How long should a nap be? To be fair, he should have the edge here. He’s a longtime napper, and fastidious about his rules: one 20-minute siesta every day, around 2 p.m., in a comfy lounge chair. Admittedly, I have less napping experience, though I, too, have a personal technique, which is to fully commit.
The internet tends to side more with my dad, but the particulars are all over the place. A widely cited 1995 NASA study found that the “ideal” nap length is 26 minutes, after which test subjects’ “performance” improved by 34 percent and “alertness” improved by 54 percent. But a different study that compared naps lasting 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes found that a 10-minute nap was the most “effective,” as it provided immediate improvements in “vigor” and cognitive performance for up to 155 minutes.
Of course, the length of your “intermediate” sleep will vary from person to person, and is also affected by how sleep-deprived you are to begin with. Not to mention, most naps don’t begin as soon as you close your eyes. “We give a wide time window for the ideal nap because people don’t have a sleep switch that they can flip,” says Pelayo. “Also, most people aren’t really sleeping the whole time they’re napping — they’re kind of dozing in and out.
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