This Is the Perfect Amount of Time to Nap Without Ruining Your Sleep at Night, Experts Say

If you’re a fan of an afternoon snooze but sometimes wake up feeling even groggier, you might be wondering how long a nap should be to actually help revive you. A nap can be really good for you if you’re lucky enough to have a free window during the day to catch up on lost Zs—and if you do it right.

That’s why we’ve consulted a neuroscientist and sleep expert about adult sleep habits and napping tips so you can time them well. Here’s what they have to say, plus their top dos and don’ts for taking a restorative nap without spoiling your nightly sleep schedule.

How Long Should a Nap Be?

Napping is healthy for you as long as it’s done right. “Try to limit [your naps] to 20 minutes,” recommends Carolyn D’Ambrosio, MD, FCCP. A 20-minute nap (do set an alarm!) provides you with some light sleep without dipping into the deeper stages of sleep. This helps you feel refreshed and still avoids throwing off your nighttime sleep.

Naps that last longer than 30 minutes, on the other hand, can make you feel groggy or impaired. However, an extra long nap that lasts around an hour and a half has benefits, especially for shift and emergency workers. Though longer naps can make you feel more tired or drowsy, a 90-minute nap, specifically, will let your body sleep through a whole sleep cycle—or cycle each phase of sleep one time.

This sleep cycle process typically takes 90 to 110 minutes without interruption. One study found that 90-minute naps were more beneficial than 40-minute naps for improving attention, physical performance, mood, muscle recovery, and feelings of fatigue in male athletes.

Benefits of Napping

Napping the appropriate amount does wonders for both your mental and physical health. Here are a few of the biggest benefits of napping when it’s done under the right conditions.

Improves Mood

A solid nap can improve your mood and energy levels to help you feel refreshed. If you’ve ever tried the whole “turn it off and turn it back on” trick when your technology is broken, napping can act as the same kind of trick for your mood.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed, a nap offers a quick boost of relaxation to decrease stress and reset the brain. So long as you don’t oversleep, you can wake up feeling more alert, less irritable, and more emotionally regulated. (That’s why the expression goes: “Just sleep on it.”)

Enhances Physical and Cognitive Performance

“Napping improves most, if not all, aspects of physical and cognitive performance,” says Major Allison Brager, a neuroscientist. Brager has studied survival under extreme conditions, including sleep deprivation. “The impact [of a nap] is almost immediate.”

As an advocate of naps, Brager says these brief moments of sleep can improve strength, power, and stamina, as well as a person’s ability to learn and remember information. “A common myth is that high performers don’t nap,” Brager adds. “The best athletes and many army soldiers take naps to ensure they’re performing at their best.”

May Boost Heart Health

Naps can also improve heart health. A Swiss study of nearly 3,500 people found that those who napped once or twice a week were less likely to experience a cardiovascular event, like a heart attack, than those who didn’t nap. But the research is conflicting. One 2015 meta-analysis of 11 studies discovered that people who nap for one hour or more a day had a 1.82 times higher rate of cardiovascular disease than those who didn’t nap—nearly double the risk factor.

According to D’Ambrosio, it isn’t always the nap itself that’s the source of harm but the reason behind the nap. “Napping routinely can be a sign of poor sleep quality or significant sleep deprivation, both of which can be bad for you as they increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and car accidents,” D’Ambrosio explains.

Recharges Your Batteries

“Night shift workers or people who are tired before going into work or driving may benefit from a short nap ahead of time,” D’Ambrosio says. She also recommends that pregnant women take naps during the day, especially if nighttime sleep is disrupted. “New mothers and parents need naps, as their sleep at night is fragmented due to caring for an infant.”

Tips to Optimize Your Nap

To get the full benefits of napping (without oversleeping, which can lead to health consequences, increased tiredness, and a spoiled nighttime sleep schedule), it’s wise to follow some proper napping best practices.

Determine Your Why

D’Ambrosio says that if you’ve had seven or more hours of solid sleep per night, there shouldn’t really be a reason to nap. That’s why she recommends asking yourself two questions before you nap: Did I get a good night’s sleep last night? And am I getting seven to eight hours of sleep consistently every night?

If the answer to either is no, you may want to consider taking a nap. If you do get enough sleep and continue to crave naps, however, you may want to address your desire to take naps with your doctor or a sleep specialist.

Nap Early in the Day

If you do ultimately decide that you deserve a nap, you might be wondering, when is the best time of day to take a nap? “If you need to nap, the best time is the early afternoon,” D’Ambrosio says. Napping too close to bedtime—really, anytime at or after 3 p.m.—can result in fragmented sleep and poor sleep quality.

Drink Caffeine Before You Nap

Drinking caffeine before you take a nap is known as a “coffee nap.” While it may seem backward, drinking caffeine before closing your eyes may help you wake up more easily, so long as you take a quick nap. That’s because caffeine generally takes about 20 minutes to kick in, so by the time you finish a 20- to 30-minute cat nap, it will just be starting to work.

Create a Relaxing Environment

If you’re going to take time out of your day to get some shut-eye, make sure that it’s worth it. Create an environment that’s actually relaxing so you can hopefully fall asleep faster and enjoy the nap more. To do this, you may want to nap in a quiet, dark, and cool environment. Reduce background noise and blue light from your devices (turn off the TV and don’t start doom-scrolling on social media when you lie down).

When You Should Reconsider Napping

If you find yourself napping often throughout the day despite getting the recommended seven-plus hours of sleep at night, there may be an underlying reason for your frequent or long siestas that’s worth checking out.

“A need to nap may indicate a problem such as poor sleep, sleep deprivation, or other conditions like obstructive sleep apnea,” says Brager. Long or frequent napping may also be a sign of chronic sleep issues, which can ultimately make falling and staying asleep at night more difficult. Frequent napping may also be a sign of mental health issues like depression.

And if you’re not getting enough sleep at night, naps won’t help you anyway. “If you’re napping six times a day in place of getting a full night’s rest, you could get sick, and your body may take even longer to recover,” Brager says, noting that “[multi-phasic napping] has become a fad in recent years in the biohacking community,” but that it’s a myth.