I love my sleep and I especially love naps.
I enjoy sneaking into bed when I'm not supposed too, it is probably to do with the fact I should be doing something instead of sleeping! It's even better when I'm on holiday and dozing by the pool, hearing life go on around me and not either being awake or asleep, but comfortable in the warm sun and restoring my energy levels.
However it is something I need to keep an eye on as it could quite easily become a habit and start disrupting my nighttime sleeping patterns again.
During my insomniac days napping was very much a coping strategy and was the only way I survived after a run of really bad nights of sleep.
The conventional wisdom for insomniacs is not to have a nap, but I am sure that there are many like me who needed them. One thing I did notice was that a well timed nap could actually break an insomniac spell and make it easier to sleep that night. Counter-intuitive but true. It is a piece of advice that I have given to many people if they have not slept properly for several nights and they too have reported back positive results.
If this is the case for you then I recommend that it is done early afternoon and for no longer than 90 minutes (that is usually an entire sleep cycle) and go to bed that evening when you are feeling tired. Naps after 4pm or are for several hours are more likely to affect that night's sleep and should be avoided.
I am sometimes asked if napping should be part of your daily sleep needs.
There are certain well know figures who always napped and felt better for it - Winston Churchill comes to mind. These naps should only last between 20 and 30 minutes, any longer and they become a sleep and part of your sleep needs.
There are a lot of proven benefits for taking a quick afternoon '40 winks' including improved alertness and mental clarity, so the concept of someone taking a nap as being 'lazy' is diminishing. Some large organisations are catching up with this idea and provide sleep rooms and napping areas for their employees, however we have a long way to go until this becomes the norm for everyone.
For some people it is a lifestyle choice. Often a night owl who has to wake early for work reasons will partake in a little examination of their eyelids to help them through the day.
For a few of my clients and the work they do, it is easier for them to break their sleep into two sections and they have a long nap each afternoon and a shorter sleep during the night. This may well be useful to you if you are a shift worker or work unsociable hours, or in the case of one of my clients, have a small but global business that means he needs to be up early to work in Australian times and up late to work in US time zones. If this helps you the important thing is to keep an eye on your total number of sleep hours to make sure you are getting enough or, on the other hand, not too many!
So should you nap or not?
The answer really is down to you and your individual sleep needs. Some people report feeling groggy and disorientated after a nap and so for those people the answer would quite simply be a no.
However if you feel you benefit from it then why not? My advice would be to keep them short and of a restricted time. Either around 20 minutes, so you do not fall into a deep sleep, or a longer one lasting 90 minutes to allow you time for a deep sleep and then return to a lighter sleep - making it easier to wake up.
BTW - If you are on your holidays I don't think anyone will begrudge you a little shut eye on the beach!
Sweet dreams!
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