Taking a nap after lunch is a great way to replenish energy or relax, especially when you haven’t slept well at night or when you live a busy lifestyle.
The ideal is to take a nap of 20 to 25 minutes after lunch to rest a little and increase energy for work or school because sleeping for more than 30 minutes can promote insomnia and increase tiredness, in addition to affecting your health. , which can also cause more serious problems such as diabetes, for example.
Main health benefits
A nap of up to 20 minutes after lunch can bring several health benefits, such as:
- Increase concentration and effectiveness at work;
- Avoid excess stresspromoting relaxation;
- Reduce tiredness physical and mental;
- Improve memory and reaction time.
Therefore, taking a nap is recommended when you feel very tired or unexpectedly sleepy during the day. Furthermore, when you know that you are going to be awake for a long time, because you are going to work during the night, it is also advisable to take a nap to have the extra energy you need.
However, when the need to take a nap during the day is very frequent or appears more than once a day, it is recommended to consult a sleep specialist to identify whether there is a health problem that needs to be treated with medication, for example.
See a list of 8 diseases that can cause tiredness and excessive sleep during the day.
How to take a good nap
To obtain all the benefits of a nap, it is important to keep it short, that is, avoiding sleeping for more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time. The best time to take a nap is between 2pm and 3pm, or right after lunch, as in addition to being one of the times of the day when attention levels are normally at their lowest, it is also not very close to bedtime. sleep, not interfering with sleep.
People who work shifts or who have their own sleep schedule should adapt their nap time to avoid interfering with their sleeping hours, as a nap too close to sleep can cause insomnia. If this is your case, check out the essential tips for improving sleep for shift workers.
Can napping harm your health?
Although taking a nap has several health benefits, it doesn’t work for everyone because not everyone can sleep during the day or out of bed, and this can cause problems such as:
- Worsening tiredness: Those who cannot sleep outside their own bed may take a while to fall asleep and this reduces rest time. This way, many people can wake up a few minutes later without feeling rested and feeling like sleeping more;
- Increased stress and frustration: those who have difficulty sleeping during the day may feel frustrated at not being able to sleep and this can increase stress levels, producing the opposite effect to what was expected;
- Insomnia: If the nap is taken too close to bedtime it may cause difficulty falling asleep at night;
- Increases risk of diabetes: According to a Japanese study, sleeping more than 40 minutes during the day increases the risk of developing diabetes by 45%.
Therefore, the ideal is for each person to try taking a nap after lunch whenever they need it and then evaluate how they feel after waking up and whether that nap affected their sleep during the night. If no negative effects are observed, naps can then be used as a great way to replenish energy during the day.
Does a nap after lunch make you fat?
There is no evidence that sleeping after a meal can make you gain weight. However, some people may have more difficulty digesting food when lying down or lying down, which in these cases can lead to abdominal bloating. Therefore, the ideal is for the person to take a nap without lying down and be careful not to eat a very large meal, and finish the meal with a digestive tea, for example.
