Y’all, naps are a beautiful and blessed thing!
If your energy crashes in the afternoon, sleep on it. A nap may be just what your body needs.
Just one or two naps a week can support mental clarity, reduce stress, and help your body recover.
Let’s look at what the data shows, and why rest matters more than most people think.
Naps Help the Brain Work Better
If you’ve ever said, “Let me just close my eyes for a bit,” and felt sharper afterward, you’re not imagining things. Short naps have real, measurable benefits for your brain.
The cognitive benefits of napping are well established. In one NASA study, pilots were scheduled for 40-minute naps during long-haul flights. Even though they averaged only 26 minutes of actual sleep, their alertness improved by 54%, and their reaction times were 34% faster. That shift is significant enough to affect job performance and safety.
Memory is also affected. A study from the University of Lübeck asked participants to learn information, and then either stay awake or nap for 40 minutes. The group that napped retained 85% of what they learned. The group that stayed awake only retained 60%.
In a third study, researchers found that naps containing both slow wave and REM sleep boosted perceptual performance to the same level seen after a full night of sleep.
Naps and Heart Health
There’s also evidence that napping can support cardiovascular health. A 2007 study that followed over 23,000 Greek adults found that those who napped regularly had a 37% lower risk of death from heart disease. Another study published in Heart in 2019 found that people who took one or two naps a week had a 48% lower risk of cardiovascular events like stroke or heart attack.
Researchers believe this may be due to how napping lowers sympathetic nervous system activity. It helps the body reset stress levels, which affects blood pressure, heart rate, and vascular health.
Immune Support and Cellular Repair
Sleep is about rest AND recovery. When you’re sleep-deprived, your immune system becomes more reactive, increasing inflammation and stress hormones. A study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism showed that a 30-minute nap after sleep loss brought levels of norepinephrine and interleukin-6 (two markers of stress and inflammation) back into a healthier range.
There’s also growing evidence that during rest, blood flow increases to the skin which supports tissue repair, collagen production, and protection from UV damage. These changes affect the way your skin ages and heals.
How Naps Affect Physical Performance
It’s not just mental clarity that improves with naps. A study published in the Journal of Sports Sciences looked at healthy young men who performed sprint drills. After taking a 30-minute nap between rounds, they improved their short sprints by nearly 4% and longer sprints by over 2%. That kind of physical recovery from a short rest can make a difference in both athletic training and daily stamina.
What Matters Most: When and How Long
The best time for a nap is early afternoon, usually between 1 and 3 p.m. That’s when the body naturally dips in energy, and napping in that window won’t usually interfere with your nighttime sleep. A 10- to 20-minute nap gives you a quick mental reset without grogginess. If you need more restoration, a 30- to 40-minute nap can help you physically and cognitively recover. If you’re truly sleep-deprived, a full 90-minute nap allows you to complete an entire sleep cycle. That kind of nap is beneficial but should be used with intention. Long naps too late in the day can disrupt your bedtime.
I wear the Ultrahuman Ring AIR, and it’s been one of the most helpful tools for understanding my health, habits, and the interplay of the two.
One recent week included two back-to-back long days and a near all-nighter leading up to a presentation. After the event, once the adrenaline wore off, I felt like crap.
The ring picked up changes in several biomarkers, including a drop in my brain health score. It quantified the dip in clarity, headaches, and dragging I experienced. Seeing that data reminded me that rest and recovery aren’t optional. I know better and need to prioritize doing better!
For those into tech, Ultrahuman recently rolled out a new feature called Nap Detection V2, which uses heart rate, temperature, and movement data to track naps. The upgraded algorithm was trained on over one million anonymized nap events so the ring can now tell the difference between actual naps and moments when you’re just sitting still (like reading or watching TV). The system now feeds nap data straight into your sleep score, recovery, and sleep debt insights.
I’ve shared about the connection between sleep and overall health in these earlier posts and YT shorts:
Each offers simple, evidence-based insights you can put into practice.
Y’all naps are a beautiful and blessed thing!
Those that may or may not involve a bit of slobber or cause you to think it is the next day when you work are better than… most things!
They help your brain work better, your heart stay strong, and your body stay ready. If you’re managing a lot, this is one tool that can help you feel and function better.
REFERENCES
- Rosekind, M. R., Smith, R. M., Miller, D. L., Co, E. L., Gregory, K. B., Webbon, L. L., Gander, P. H., & Lebacqz, J. V. (1995). Alertness management: Strategic naps in operational settings. Journal of Sleep Research, 4(S2), 62–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.1995.tb00256.x (PMID: 10607214)
- Tucker, M. A., Hirota, Y., Wamsley, E. J., Lau, H., Chaklader, A., & Fishbein, W. (2006). A daytime nap containing solely non-REM sleep enhances declarative but not procedural memory. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 86(2), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2006.03.005 (PMID: 16931152)
- Mednick, S., Nakayama, K., & Stickgold, R. (2003). Sleep-dependent learning: A nap is as good as a night. Nature Neuroscience, 6(7), 697–698. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1078 (PMID: 16647282)
- Naska, A., Oikonomou, E., Trichopoulou, A., Psaltopoulou, T., & Trichopoulos, D. (2007). Siesta in healthy adults and coronary mortality in the general population. Archives of Internal Medicine, 167(3), 296–301. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.167.3.296 (PMID: 17296887)
- Häusler, N., Marques-Vidal, P., & Haba-Rubio, J. (2019). Association of napping with incident cardiovascular events in a prospective cohort study. Heart, 105(23), 1793–1798. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314999 (PMID: 31501230)
- Faraut, B., Boudjeltia, K. Z., Dyzma, M., Rousseau, A., Stenuit, P., Franck, T., Van Antwerpen, P., Kerkhofs, M. (2015). Napping reverses the salivary interleukin-6 and urinary norepinephrine changes induced by sleep restriction. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 100(3), E416–E426. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2014-2566 (PMID: 25537790)
- Romdhani, M., Souissi, N., & Chtourou, H. (2020). Effect of napping on repeated sprint performance and perceived exertion in physically active men. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(4), 416–423. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2019.1706834 (PMID: 31281263)