How Long Should a Nap Last?

Get the hows and whys of nap length from James Maas, Ph.D., psychology professor at Cornell University. From his best-selling book, “Power Sleep.”

A nap should be about fifteen to thirty minutes in duration. If you nap longer than thirty minutes your body lapses into delta, or deep, sleep. Delta sleep is difficult to wake from and if interrupted or just completed, can leave you feeling terribly groggy.

If you are severely sleep-deprived and must nap longer than thirty minutes you should probably extend it to a full hour and a half to complete a sleep cycle. But don’t expect to be fully alert until at least an hour after the nap. Your nocturnal sleep time is likely to be shorter after a long daytime nap. Count the time spent napping as part of your total sleep quotient.

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Dr. Jeffrey Midgow contends that the body only needs about fifteen minutes to nap because it “is a very resilient system that doesn’t need much more than to rejuvenate. If you take time to turn the nervous system off the whole system recharges.” Your mood will improve, as will your alertness.

If you are going to nap in the middle of the day, be consistent and make a habit of napping every day. An irregular napping schedule might disrupt your internal body clock and nocturnal sleep pattern. Napping only on the weekends is like dieting or exercising only on the weekends to make up for a week of overeating and not exercising—it doesn’t work.

Brief naps taken daily are far healthier than sleeping in or taking very long naps on the weekend. If you nap too long on Sunday afternoon to catch up from your week’s hectic schedule, you’ll have trouble getting to sleep that night. This shifts your biological clock, making it difficult to get up in time on Monday to start the new workweek.

You might have to work through your mid-afternoon period of drowsiness because there is no time or opportunity for a nap. After this you might feel increased alertness, especially if you’re doing something interesting. This is because your clock-alerting circadian rhythm has passed its low point and is beginning to rise again. However, don’t think this second wind means you’re not still prone to an unexpected sleep seizure. You haven’t repaid any previous sleep debt. If you start doing something sedentary, like driving a car or watching television, you could suddenly fall asleep.

Late-afternoon napping isn’t healthy. It delays your falling asleep time in the evening and begins to shift your biological clock, making getting up in the morning a struggle. Senior citizens who have nocturnal insomnia should refrain from napping at all. It will only make things worse. Better to be exhausted in the evening and get a long, continuous nocturnal sleep.