By Julianne Fullerton | Copy Editor
We’ve all been there. It’s early or mid-afternoon, and you’re hit with the irrepressible desire to take a nap. Suddenly, your bed is calling your name, and you find your head on your pillow. Your eyes shut, and all your stress fades away.
This is something I experience on a weekly basis, if not on a daily basis. My eyes start to grow heavy, and I find myself checking my schedule to see if I can fit in a quick nap. Most of the time, it’s a yes.
I am a huge advocate for adding a nap to your day. For me, a good 20- or 30-minute nap is what I need to recharge and gives me an energy boost to get through the rest of the day.
I never took naps before college; in fact, I didn’t understand people who did. Now, I can’t live without them. Maybe it’s the ever-increasing tiredness I feel due to my busy schedule or my insanely comfortable mattress topper, but I take more naps now than ever before.
There are a few napping practices that I always follow.
First, I always set an alarm — not a timer. If you set a timer and turn it off, you run the risk of falling back asleep and not waking up for a while. On the other hand, if you set an alarm, the snooze button will ensure that you don’t sleep the rest of your day away.
Second, I limit how long I sleep. Naturally, there are some days when a long nap is needed, but I try to limit myself to naps between 20 and 30 minutes. If you nap for too long, you risk falling into a full sleep cycle, which is at least 90 minutes. A 90- to 120-minute nap would be considered a REM nap because you complete the sleep cycle once, so save it for days you absolutely need it.
The Mayo Clinic recommends napping for 10 to 20 minutes. If you nap too long, you might wake up feeling groggy and disoriented — and, oftentimes, more tired than you were before. Don’t let that happen; limit how long you sleep.
Third, I always make sure I have ideal napping conditions. For me, this looks like closing my door, closing my blinds, turning on my overhead fan and turning on a smaller fan to block out noise. There’s no point in wasting 30 minutes of my day napping if I’m not able to fall asleep. In the same way, if I know I’m not actually tired enough to nap, I don’t even attempt to. There’s nothing worse than closing your eyes just to be met with thoughts that keep you awake.
I’ve found that caffeine isn’t always my best friend, and as much as I would love for it to give me the energy to get through the day, it tends to just make me shake. Instead, I use napping as a natural way to give me that extra energy boost, so my eyes don’t flutter asleep as I’m sitting in class.
Despite my love for naps, I still believe it’s important to get a healthy amount of sleep. It’s recommended that college students get seven or more hours of sleep each night, but for many, this is unattainable.
There are benefits to healthy power naps, including improved performance, enhanced learning, lower blood pressure and an enhanced mood. I understand that not everyone has time in their day to squeeze a nap in, and others can’t seem to nap at all. But for those of you who can or need a new way to counteract your drowsiness, give napping a try.
