icon-account icon-glass

Popular Searches

Popular Products

The Lean Protein
Whey protein powder for weight-loss.

CATEGORIES

How To Nap Like A Pro: The Tips And Tricks You Need To Know

9th June 2021

health Life

9th June 2021

By Beth Shelper

Whether you’ve got an hour lunch break and you’re desperate to cram in a 20-minute power nap before the afternoon kicks off or you’re enjoying your day off and fancy an afternoon cat-nap, the art of napping can be a hard one to get right, and an even tougher one to master.

The question is: is napping good for you? Done right, and you get a perfectly restorative nap without all those feelings of grogginess, setting you up to tackle the rest of your day with ease. Do it wrong, however, and you’re in for a tough battle against the symptoms of drowsiness, which will probably negatively affect your mood, performance and energy levels even more. Boo.

What is a nap?

A nap is characterised as any sleep that you take in the middle of the day for a short, brief period. Naps are more than likely taken in the day, especially in the afternoon, to give you an energy burst to make the most of the afternoon or evening ahead.

Health benefits of napping

If you’re having an extremely busy day and you’ve got a ton of work to do, you may think that napping is the complete opposite of what you should be doing. This isn’t necessarily the case though. If you’re struggling to complete your work from lack of concentration and symptoms of fatigue, you would absolutely benefit from a nap.

Aside from the short-term benefit of a quick boost of energy and improved performance, napping actually presents some pretty neat health benefits, too.

Some of our favourite nap benefits include:

  • Improves your mood
  • Ups your memory capacity
  • Increases your level of alertness
  • Speeds up your reaction time
  • Reduces stress levels
  • Helps mental clarity

How long should I nap for?

Whilst this is debated and different times may work for different people, it's been widely agreed through the findings of research studies that the optimum time for a nap is between 10 and 20 minutes.

You may be thinking – that’s so short! How can I get any rest in that short of a period? Well, the proof is all in the science. You can still get those all-important nap benefits from just 20 minutes of sleep!

The recipe for the ideal nap

If you’re looking for some great nap tips, the first thing to remember is that it’s important not to overcomplicate this process. If you’re thinking too much and putting too much pressure on your nap – you’ll find it nearly impossible to get your sleep.

How to nap during the day 

We’ve put together some simple steps to set you up for the nap of your life, so prepare yourself for some well-deserved rest and perfect sleep hygiene tips. 

1. Nap in a dark room

Many people ask us how to nap during the day, and this is one of the key components to a successful day nap. Whilst this may seem obvious, especially in the lighter, sunnier months, it may be hard to achieve darkness in your house without some seriously heavy-duty curtains. The goal here is to block out as much light as possible – both natural and artificial, to trick your body into thinking that it’s time for bed.

2. Make your room comfortable

From wearing cosy clothes to getting that perfect spot in bed and ensuring your room is at a comfortable temperature, there are a few things you can do to increase the possibility of an effective nap.

Make sure there are no distractions, so put away your phone, shut down your laptop and turn off that TV. If it’s too hot, whack on your fan, and if it’s a particularly chilly day, grab your hot water bottle or a warm blanket. Comfort is key.

3. Keep it short

As we said, the best naps are the shorter ones. This is because remaining asleep for a prolonged amount of time essentially tells your body that it is night time, and it’s time to get a full night’s rest. This is counterproductive, and you will actually end up falling into the deeper stages of sleep, such as Rapid Eye Movement (REM).

As soon as you slip into a REM cycle, you run the risk of sleeping for an hour or more, and if you do wake up, it’s pretty likely you’ll experience those unpleasant and unwanted feelings of overtiredness, which is the complete opposite of what you were hoping to achieve.

4. Avoid caffeine

If you’re hoping to sneak in a quick midday nap, try and avoid caffeine and sugar sources throughout the morning. These up your energy levels for a short period of time, but aren’t as effective as getting good, natural rest. It’s important to prioritise these natural strategies as the consumption of these products may mess with your ability to fall asleep!

5. Set an alarm

This one is pretty important. Not only will this ensure that you don’t cross over into that deep REM sleep, but setting an alarm will make sure that you don’t oversleep and accidentally miss that important meeting with your boss you had scheduled after lunch.

Summary

Here at Innermost, we’re big believers in staying healthy so that you can keep on top of your game and maximise your performance.

So, is napping good for you? Absolutely. Getting a good night sleep and adequate rest is one of the core building blocks to ensure this is happening, so anything we can do to help you get there is a priority. If you’re struggling to switch off, relax, and get that all-important rest, check out The Relax Capsules. Formulated with natural calming ingredients such as Ashwagandha, Valerian Root and Lion Mane’s Mushroom, this nootropic is designed to reduce stress and promote relaxation so you can chill out in the face of life’s stressful day-to-day happenings.

References

  • Duffy, J. F., Abbott, S. M., Burgess, H. J., Crowley, S. J., Emens, J. S., Epstein, L. J., ... & Klerman, E. B. (2021). Workshop report. Circadian rhythm sleep–wake disorders: gaps and opportunities. Sleep, 44(5). Click here.
  • Siegel, J. M. (2005). REM Sleep. Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, 4, 120-135. Click here.
< Older post Newer post >

Need Expert Advice?

Take the quiz

Take the quiz

If you're not sure where to start, take our 5 minute health consultation to get product recommendations tailored to your goals.
Read more

Other Insights

What Happened To My Training Over Summer (Honestly)

What Happened To My Training Over Summer (Honestly)

I did not train well this summer. A holiday to spend time with my family, a run of work trips, a couple of injuries I was trying to cope with (left shoulder and right forearm for those who are interested). If you'd asked me in June how consistent I'd be over the summer, I'd have said very. I was wrong. Most people quietly assume the founder of a wellness brand has this figured out. The truth is I run a brand, I try to have a life outside it, and summer is the season where routine goes to die for almost everyone I know. I don't think that's a personal failing. I think it's just what a normal year looks like. What I want to talk about is what actually happens to your body when this happens, because the research here is more reassuring than you might expect. What detraining research actually shows There's a real body of science on this. Strength and cardiovascular fitness don't decline at the same rate, and they don't decline anywhere near as fast as people fear. Cardiovascular fitness is the first thing to soften. Your VO2 max starts drifting down within a couple of weeks of stopping structured training, because your heart and blood vessels adapt to demand quickly in both directions. Strength is a different story. Studies that track people through a few weeks off training consistently find that measurable strength loss is small, often barely noticeable, for the first three to four weeks. The muscle itself takes even longer to shrink in any meaningful way. Several studies looking specifically at detraining periods found that visible loss of muscle protein and structure often doesn't show up until somewhere between five and eight months without any training at all. A summer of patchy sessions is nowhere near that. The reassuring partThe part I find genuinely reassuring is what's called muscle memory, and it's not just a phrase people use to feel better about a break. When you train, your muscle cells add nuclei, essentially more control centres for building protein. Research shows those nuclei stick around for months after you stop training, well past the point where the muscle itself has started to shrink. When you come back, you're not starting from zero. You're reactivating machinery that never actually left. That's a large part of why people who return to training after a long break tend to regain lost strength and size far faster than it took to build in the first place, often within four to eight weeks depending on how long the layoff was. Some of you might remember this happening post-Covid. So if you had a summer like mine, the honest scientific answer is that you probably lost less than it feels like, and you'll get it back faster than you think. What I'm actually doing this month Nothing dramatic. I'm not doing a reset week or a punishing comeback programme. I'm just going back to five structured sessions a week, prioritising the compound lifts I know well, and being honest that the first couple of sessions will feel harder than they did in June.  Don’t forget your proteinThe other thing I'm paying more attention to is protein, simply because it's the one lever that makes the rebuilding phase more efficient. Adequate protein intake supports the muscle protein synthesis that's doing the actual work of restoring what softened over summer. I've been leaning on The Health Protein for this. It's plant-based, built around pea and brown rice protein for a full amino acid profile, with glutamine in there to support recovery. If you'd rather stick with a whey based option, that's a completely reasonable choice too, and The Strong Protein remains built for exactly that. If you had a messy summer, you're not behind. You're just at the start of a normal, unremarkable return to routine, and the research says that's a far shorter road back than most people assume. Forward this to anyonre you know who is dreading their first session back. I'd genuinely like to know what generally works for you post-summer. Structured plan, just showing up once, anything. Reply and tell me. Even if it’s a one-liner, I’d love to hear from you.
Read more
The Glow Blend: A Confession

The Glow Blend: A Confession

I need to tell you something I've never said publicly, and it's not flattering. When our product team first brought me a plan for a collagen supplement, my honest reaction was no. Not "let me think about it." A flat no. And if I'm being fully honest about why, it wasn't the science. It was that collagen felt, in my head, like a beauty category. Something for someone else's brand. Not ours. I built Innermost around performance and evidence. Protein, creatine, mushrooms, electrolytes. Things I could point to a study for and feel comfortable talking about at a dinner table full of people who workout regularly. Collagen sat in a different mental folder. Skincare aisle. Jars with gold lids and brand sponsorship by one of the Kardashians. I'd absorbed a version of what "beauty" meant without ever examining it. The argument in the room So we had the argument internally. A proper one. A few people on the team pushed back hard, and rightly so. One of them put it to me plainly: we started Innermost to follow the evidence wherever it goes, not to follow it everywhere except the places that feel awkward. That line stuck with me. Here's what changed my mind, and it wasn't a feeling. It was the research. What the evidence actually says Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. It's structural, it's in your skin, your joints, your gut lining, and production declines steadily from your mid-twenties onward. That's not a marketing claim, that's basic physiology. The question was never whether collagen matters. It was whether supplementing it actually does anything, and that's where most of the category falls apart. Most collagen products on the market use whole collagen molecules, which are too large to be absorbed effectively when you drink them. The ones that do use hydrolysed peptides, which are broken down into smaller chains your body can actually take up, still run into a second problem: dose. A lot of labels list collagen content that sits well below the 2 to 10 grams used in the trials that show measurable effects on skin elasticity and hydration. You're paying for a placebo with good branding. The ingredient most brands leave out The third problem is the one that convinced me completely. Vitamin C isn't a nice-to-have alongside collagen. It's a required co-factor for your body to actually synthesise collagen at the cellular level. Without adequate vitamin C, the enzymes responsible for stabilising collagen structure don't function properly. You can take a perfectly dosed hydrolysed peptide and still get a fraction of the benefit if the product doesn't include enough vitamin C alongside it. Most don't. They sell you the raw material and leave out the one thing your body needs to use it. Once I saw the category clearly, laid out like that, the decision stopped being about how I felt and started being about what the evidence supported. That's the whole operating principle of Innermost. I couldn't defend saying no to a legitimate, well-evidenced product category. What we built So we built The Glow Blend properly. Hydrolysed collagen peptides at a dose that reflects the research, alongside vitamin C, hyaluronic acid for hydration, biotin and folic acid for hair and nail health. Nothing in it that doesn't earn its place. What surprised me after launch The part I didn't expect was the response once we launched it. A good number of the messages came from women, as you'd expect, and they were generous and specific about what they'd noticed. But a surprising number came from men. Customers writing in to say they'd felt exactly what I'd felt, that awkward little flinch at "collagen," and had quietly bought it anyway because the ingredient breakdown made sense to them. That response told me more about why this category needed an honest voice in it than any research paper did. I'm not going to pretend I have this fully figured out. I still catch myself, occasionally, hesitating slightly before I mention it in a room. Old habits sit deeper than good evidence sometimes. But I take it, and increasingly a lot of men I respect take it too, quietly, without needing to make a thing of it. If this sounds familiar If any part of this resonated, and you've felt that same small resistance to a category you assumed wasn't for you, hit reply and tell me. I'd genuinely like to know I'm not the only one who had to get over it. And if you know someone, a friend, a partner, who could use this exact reasoning rather than a tesimonial, forward it on. It might do more good coming from someone else's honesty.
Read more