Is it not a good idea to nap mid-day?

Since it is 5 in the morning and I should be napping myself I am not going to go and find some evidence to support this BUT my understanding naps during the day are actually healthy. I would enjoy them if you have the opportunity to take one. Think ‘siesta’ or call them ‘power naps’. Power naps recharge your batteries and I have seen research that says people return to work refreshed and are more productive when they take them.

I would LOVE to be able to have a nap during the day. Enjoy your sleep!

Pros: You get to freaking nap during the day. ‘Nuf said.
Cons: You might not be tired at bedtime, then might not get much sleep at night, then be more tired the next day. Try it and see if this applies to you (it does not apply to me).

I’ve read that it’t good to nap but keep it to a 20 minute limit. Less and you won“t feel refreshed enough. More and it will make you feel too groggy. Seems to work for me. Of course if you are sleep deprived it will be very hard to keep it to 20 minutes! Your body will want way more to catch up and feel rested.

I love naps. I first encountered them during a summer I spent studying in Mexico. The large meal of the day is lunch and then it’s siesta. It was absolutely brilliant and perfect for me. Since then, I take ‘power’ naps when I can. You can test how naps work for you and what the best times are.

I don’t know of any cons except that few business have a corporate ‘nap’ room which is, IMNSHO, stupid.

I also love them and try to sneak one in whenever possible. I have part one, then nap and then part two of my day optimally. During the nap, if I weren’t sleeping, I would be fighting sleep and not doing anything productive.

So why not go for it?

I think it’s a very individual thing and really depends on how it effects your daytime functioning and night time sleeping. I would kill for a nap right but my hair is wet.

I’m the exact same way – right around 3PM. Been this way for years and I am 40.

I had a job once that gave a full hour for lunch. I scheduled mine at three and often napped under a tree in a nearby park.

At my last FT job it was impossible to get 15 minutes to eat, much less nap. So I’d struggle through it until I got a second wind.

I much preferred my earlier situation.

Napping is fine if you don’t sleep too long. Twenty to thirty minutes is long enough to refresh and not enough to impact sleeping that night.

I’m 52 now and have never been a napper. Once in awhile on a stormy day or when I am sick.
Some people can really feel rejuvenated after a 20–30 minute “power” nap, but not me. A brief few minutes of closing my eyes helps, but, if I fall into a real sleep I never come out of the groggy zone.

I prefer to slog through the lulls and go to bed early.
HOWEVER, I am disgressing to infancy as we tend to do as we age, haha
Give me a glass or two of wine, dinner, and invariably I am nodding out within 30 minutes of my baba and dinner. lol
I have been really messed up with the time change the last few weeks, the evenings are flying by and next thing I know it’s pushing midnight, or later before I get to bed.

Then, it is taking me til about 1–2 o’ clock in the afternoon to reach my peak energy. Bah!
Rinse and repeat.
I didn’t get home til 8 o; clock the other night and next thing I know it was midnight! Shit..I hate the time changes.

I did a Web search on napping. I was reminded of the term power nap, made popular by a book by James Maas of Cornell. There seems to be a lot of evidence that napping is beneficial. Typical is this article from the Smithsonian Web site.

Not often, but I will occasionally feel real groggy at around lunch time. I have handled it by leaving work for lunch, driving to some strip mall parking lot, and taking a nap for 15 to 20 minutes. It is very effective.

Naping is a rite of passage to a retiree.I do it all the time.

A doctor on tv labeled napping as, “that’s health.” Weird remark but if you can get to sleep at night napping is good for you. So I’ve heard; I can’t manage one. I’d love to be able to, though.

I never nap .. I feel lousy when I wake up. I would rather just go to bed earlier at night and get up early .. best time of day!

I always have plenty of energy to get through the day .. and I’m an old lady!!! :)

Not being able to get your daily long sleep is the con of napping. The pro is you feel refreshed. I know some people who get headaches after a nap.

It’s a good idea to always listen to your body. If it’s sleepy and you have the opportunity to do it, do it. Pros and cons…every body is different.

I enjoy a good nap, but it does make it more difficult to sleep through the night.

Jude I found this advice on napping which is something like what I read and explains it more scientifically…..if you are interested…

I read an article a while back which basically said that your ability to learn diminishes the longer you’ve been without sleep, so its quite healthy to take a short nap. The only downside is that sometimes if I take a nap I have trouble falling asleep later on.

Naps in the afternoon and I do not get along. I wake up as one ill person and it ruins the rest of my night.

I will just keep on sleeping my 4 hours each night and enjoy it.

I was going to say, “It depends on how old you are;” but, with your schedule, it sounds like a good idea. Just be sure to set an alarm. sweet dreams

I have always been a terrible sleeper. At night I sleep in 2 hour increments. Thankfully I can usually get back to sleep quickly for the next 2 hour segment. So I do like a nap in the afternoon if I can find time. A short nap refreshes me and keeps me going until it is bedtime.

I just moved from the tropics where there is no daylight saving time to the cold south where there is. I am still trying to adjust to it staying light until 8 or so at night and not getting light until almost 7 in the morning. I don’t like it!

My personal experience:

Pro: 10–20 minutes
Cons: more than 30 minutes.

But many people in Spain and Italy see this differently. Their siestas are quite long.