Here's the science on whether Napping has short and long-term advantages to your well-being.

At mid-afternoon, you find yourself full from lunch, feeling heat-worn, and beginning to experience feelings of fatigue. Is now the right time to succumb to temptation and take a power nap?

From a Health perspective, napping could be worth your while. While research varies as to its overall benefits for all individuals, research indicates it can improve at least some people's cognitive performance in the short term and may also have long-term advantages like improving cardiovascular health or countering brain volume loss - all potential indicators of dementia risk.

"Taking an occasional nap of up to 30 minutes could help your brain age more healthily," according to Victoria Garfield, an epidemiologist from University College London.

Studies indicate that an occasional nap can provide a short-term increase in brainpower. Scientists conducted reviews on past research conducted with healthy participants with regular Sleep cycles. That 2009 review in the Journal of Sleep Research demonstrated how napping improved several aspects of performance, ranging from reaction time and alertness to memory performance and creativity. Furthermore, according to a 2021 Science Advances study. Participants were provided with math problems that could be easily solved using an undocumented shortcut and then encouraged to take a brief doze before returning to tackle their problems. Researchers discovered that those who took even brief naps--30 seconds or so spent in the initial lightest phase of sleep--were 2.7 times more likely to identify an efficient math shortcut than those who remained awake. But entering deeper sleep phases had the opposite effect, inhibiting creativity. Thus there may exist a "sweet spot" of mental relaxation that opens the way to eureka moments.

Napping is especially helpful for those in sleep debt, meaning they don't get enough nighttime rest. Shift workers, new parents and those living with fragmented nighttime rest may all see immediate improvements when taking a nap during night-shift work; according to one 2014 review of research it showed how taking a nap lowered sleepiness while improving overall performance - even though people might experience sleep inertia upon awakening from their nap--an effect known as "sleep inertia."

Natalie Dautovich, a psychologist from Virginia Commonwealth University and environmental fellow with the National Sleep Foundation primarily funded by pharmaceutical and medical device companies, states that timing your naps correctly can reduce sleep inertia. A 20-minute nap can provide much-needed refreshment; 60 to 90 minutes of uninterrupted restful sleep is even more restorative; Dautovich suggests one lasting more than 20 minutes but less than 60 minutes may cause inertia in sleep patterns.

Short-term benefits of napping are well documented, while longer-term effects remain less certain. There has been much discussion over whether naps are beneficial or harmful for cardiovascular health after mixed epidemiological research was published on this topic. Unfortunately, self-reports regarding how frequently people nap and for how long are unreliable, making establishing the correlation between naps and any particular health outcomes not always straightforward.

"The relationship between napping and other health conditions can be difficult to ascertain," states Svea. Greater daytime sleepiness may be indicative of many health conditions; therefore napping may not necessarily be seen as the source but more so as an effect.

Studies conducted in 2021 published by Alzheimer's & Dementia Journal revealed that long naps among older adults (with an average age of 81.4) was both an indicator of increased risk for Alzheimer's and its effects, as well as leading to longer and more frequent napping periods than usual.

Sleep Medicine Reviews released in 2017 reviewed research on the long-term health effects of napping, concluding that studies in midlife adults suggested napping may lower coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular conditions. Short naps were suggested as having the potential to reduce blood pressure, heart rate and release of hormones such as adrenaline--all factors which may improve cardiovascular health according to this review. Nonetheless, older adults found that long naps of an hour or more may increase cardiac problems; possibly as symptoms rather than causes; cautioned its authors.

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Garfield and her colleagues at University College London have discovered that regular short naps may improve long-term brain health. By using data from the U.K. Biobank containing genetic and health information on 500,000 healthy people between the ages of 40 and 69, Garfield found those whose genes associated with napping regularly also had larger brain volumes; all brains lose volume as we age, but more significant reductions may be linked with dementia, sleep apnea or higher cortisol levels; taking regular nap breaks was equivalent to saving yourself between 2.6-6.5 years aging according to Garfield's calculations reported in Sleep Health by Garfield's team based on brain volume alone!

Garfield recognizes that not everyone can nap, and there are other similarly healthy activities that could fill 30 minutes a day, such as going for a walk or hitting the gym; but napping should be seen as a positive habit and not one indicative of slothfulness.

Dautovich suggests that using trial and error to determine whether napping is beneficial can help many individuals determine its use for them. Scheduling permitting, beginning with brief afternoon naps of 20 minutes or less multiple days each week to see if they help enhance mood or functioning or interfere with nocturnal sleep is helpful in giving your body time to develop its own napping pattern.