Most of us lead lives inundated with work, family or household concerns, school, social pressures and more. It’s understandable that sometimes we struggle with exhaustion or sleep regulation. If your sleep schedule is off, you may feel tempted to catch up with a midday nap.
However, if you are an experienced napper, you might have noticed some downsides to napping, as well. Maybe you woke up still feeling tired, or maybe it threw off your sleep schedule further by making it more difficult to fall asleep at night.
The amount of sleep you get has an impact on your mental health, so it’s natural that napping does, too. But is napping good or bad for your mental health? Or does the answer fall somewhere in the middle?
The Mental Health Benefits of Napping
Overall, studies have shown that naps can be a bit of a mixed bag in terms of mental health. While there are things that you’ll need to be careful of, there are also benefits to napping. Some of these include:
Increased Memory
Struggling with memory? This can be a common symptom for many mental health conditions, such as depression or ADHD. And studies have shown that naps may be able to help with that. One study from 2007 concluded that motor memories were “dynamically facilitated across daytime naps.”1 Another study from 2003 found that a 60-90 minute nap offered the same benefits as a full night’s sleep when it came to perceptual learning.2
Napping allows you to refresh your brain, which can boost cognition where otherwise you might feel overloaded. When you use moderation with napping, it can also improve alertness.
Lower Stress and Better Mood Regulation
Have you ever had the feeling of “needing to sleep on it?” It comes when you’re too overwhelmed by a situation and need to turn your brain off for a bit to reduce your stress so that you can approach it more clearly. This doesn’t have to be a full night’s rest, however. If you’re having a stressful or overwhelming day, a nap might help to lower your stress.
When you nap, your mind can rest for a while without having to take in more information or stressors. You will likely wake calmer and less stressed. In doing so, you can better regulate your mood. This can keep you from making an impulsive, emotionally driven decision and bring you into “wise mind.”
Balanced Sleep Schedule
Too much napping can disrupt your sleep schedule, but if you time it just right, a nap might be what you need to get back on track. Let’s say you’re deeply sleep deprived throughout the early part of the day. You could push through and end up falling asleep hours earlier than usual, thus waking up hours earlier than you intended. It can take a few nights to get your sleep back on track. If, however, you take a 30 minute power nap halfway through the day, it can give you the energy to stay awake until your usual time, thus righting your sleep schedule.
The Mental Health Concerns of Napping
The benefits of napping shouldn’t be overlooked, but neither should the disadvantages. If you plan to work napping into your routine, there are a few things you may need to watch out for.
Poor Sleep Schedule
Having a healthy sleep schedule of roughly 7-9 hours per night is essential to your mental health. While a nap when you feel tired halfway through the day might seem appealing, it has the potential to wreck your sleep schedule. If a nap goes over 90 minutes, your mind slips into REM sleep, which resets your sleep pattern. If you nap too late in the day, you may struggle to fall asleep at night. It’s important to nap in moderation and at the right time to keep from throwing off your sleep schedule.
Sleep Inertia
Have you ever woken up from a nap feeling more tired than when you laid down in the first place? This is a condition called sleep inertia, characterized by grogginess and feeling off-kilter after waking up from a nap. This often happens if you nap too long and go into REM sleep. Waking from that can be jarring, and it may make it difficult for you to focus as you return to your day.
Exacerbated Depression
When you have depression, it is easy to become lethargic and to struggle to do your daily tasks or practice self-care. “Difficulty getting out of bed” is a commonly stated symptom of depression. When you nap in the midst of a depressive episode, you may be giving into the urge to simply “veg out” and ignore your tasks and responsibilities. This can in some cases worsen your depression.
Tips For Napping Well
As you might have noticed, many of the drawbacks of napping come from failing to nap in moderation. You can nap in a healthy way and may be able to enjoy the benefits from napping without the drawbacks when you do so. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Try to nap for no longer than 90 minutes. 30-60 minutes is often recommended.
- Avoid napping after 3pm.
- Ease yourself back into being awake.
Most importantly, work to keep your sleep schedule healthy. Avoid using your bed for anything but sleep, go to bed at the same time each night, and wake up at the same time each day. Avoid eating anything heavy after 7pm or drinking caffeine after 3pm. If your sleep schedule is healthy, you may find that you rarely need to nap.
If you struggle with napping or other mental health issues, Rivia Mind is here to help. Contact us today to learn more or to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.
Resources:
- Daytime Naps, Motor Memory Consolidation and Regionally Specific Sleep Spindles – Nishida, Masaki and Walker, Matthew P.; 2007
- Sleep-dependent learning: a nap is as good as a night – Mednick, Sara; Nakayama, Ken; and Stickgold, Robert; 2003
