You are guilty as charged! By whom and for what?. It might be quite funny how much guilt we feel sometimes in taking a nap. It doesn’t necessarily feel that way when we do something worse that needs scolding.
Well, I have good news for you. You don’t need that guilty feeling anymore because napping is very good for the body.
In as much as the feeling of guilt arises from thinking about the time wasted and things not done. Think positively either about its benefit to your health because that is paramount.
Nap entails having a brief sleep during the day and it comes with lots of benefit such as;
- Improved stamina
- Relief from stress and fatigue
- Enhanced mood
- Improved memory and other brain functions
- Boost alertness
So you see, you have every reason to nap. Once time and other necessary factors are considered, when you wake up from a nap, that guilty feeling won’t be there anymore.
There are ways and measures to take that can help you have a 10 mins guilt-free nap, and they are as follows:
- Don’t nap close to bedtime
Napping during the day wouldn’t affect your sleep at night. However, doing so close to bedtime surely would. Taking a nap close to dinner time is more likely to interfere with your night sleeping schedule.
And, when you find yourself staring at the ceiling or watching the clock while it ticks, then the guilt of “why did I even nap” will slowly creep in.
So, when next you want to nap, it is advised to do so between the periods of 1-3 pm.
- Nap short
A nap is shorter than sleep. A normal nap is expected to be as short as 10mins and as long as 25mins, if you want to achieve a better result.
Napping for long doesn’t necessarily make it better, not only can it keeps you awake throughout the night, but it also comes with a feeling of poor mood and performance.
Although napping may not make up for the previous sleepless night but it will surely keep you alert. Again, keep you better prepared for the task ahead.
Just bear in mind that “the shorter the nap, the better it becomes”.
- Nap or coffee?
When you have that feeling of tiredness while working in the office, you may think that the best thing to always do is to grab a cup of coffee.
It might seem a wise choice for the moment, nonetheless, the guilt will raise its ugly head at night when you can’t fall asleep.
Limit your intake of coffee or other caffeinated drinks if you must take that. On the other hand, ensure it’s during morning hours or at least early afternoon between 12 pm – 2 pm.
Consuming caffeinated drinks late is likely to affect your sleep, which you may blame it on your afternoon nap.
When you feel tired but still want to keep going, a cup of coffee won’t solve the problem, instead, a nap of 10mins can do the magic. It will make you alert and even more prepared than you were before you nap.
- Think about the benefits
Just like sleep which is a natural phenomenon, having a feeling to nap can occur naturally as well. A feeling of tiredness can creep at any time of the day but mostly in the early afternoon between 1- 3 pm.
If you think you need a nap, don’t force yourself to be awake. Even if you do, you may be unproductive and still look droopy.
Don’t bother about that which is before you, rather think about that which you are yet to do. Because the benefits of the later are numerous to count. It can help you to be more creative, alert, relieve stress and many more.
So, when you wake up to find out that you fall into a short sleep in between work or other daily activities, knowing the benefits of what you have done will overcome the guilt that follows.
- Know when to nap
In as much as taking a nap is good, doing it anytime, anywhere may not be proper. Not minding where you nap can make you seem lazy and unreliable.
For example, it looks unprofessional to nap during a meeting, when you would have done that before time.
This can bring up the guilt of unprofessionalism to the person in question. Just as it applies to sleep, there are times we can’t override a nap, it will just sweep us off our feet, and it’s always too late to realize that.
- Make it a habit – A good one
When something becomes a habit and a good one, then there is no way you can feel guilty when you indulge in such a habit.
What it becomes a habit, it becomes almost a daily routine. As a matter of fact, this can make you gain other benefits that come with regular naps.
- Time yourself
When it comes to napping, time is everything. Napping requires one to sleep for a very short time, but when the time frame for that is prolonged, then, it actually becomes asleep and not nap again.
And most times the benefits that come with napping follow suit when it is short. When we nap for so long, we wake with a feeling of tiredness.
When it comes to sleep, there are many categories of people. There are categories of sleepers, thus, light sleepers and heavy sleepers. They are respectively, people who sleep, yet aware of the environment and those who sleep and the only next thing they are aware of is when they wake up.
Therefore, in this case, it is necessary for you to time yourself. You can use a stopwatch or an alarm clock, that can beep when the set time reaches.
It will look so humiliating when you decide to have a little nap at the office and wake up not only with a swollen face.
- Understand its normal
Just as you don’t feel guilty sleeping off in the night, then, there is no reason to feel guilty taking a short nap during the day.
Some multinational companies with strong and professional health personnel are gradually incorporating into their policy the act of taking some minutes off by their employees.
This for the sole purpose of enabling the workers to take a nap. They might have probably found that it can increase productivity and alertness.
Is having a short nap good for me?
Naps are light, but having a very short one less than 10 mins won’t produce much effect, it is advised to nap at least 10 mins for maximum improvement.
Also, know that napping for a long time too can lead to sleeping off which probably isn’t what you want.
When should I not nap?
In as much as a nap is good for the body, there are times, when it is expected that one should not nap as it can make such a person not to perform well or feel mess up.
- In the morning
- Late afternoon
- Have problems sleeping (insomnia)
- When you have slept all through the night
- When the nap time has elapsed.
Funny enough, some people can associate napping to laziness but it is not always so. Here are some famous people who napped or rather will say they love napping. Also, they gave their reasons for doing so.
Winston Churchill: He believed that having a good nap each day makes him productive by doing twice what he would have normally done once daily.
Albert Einstein: Said that having a few minutes nap has helped to fuel his brain with the unthinkable.
Salvador Dali: A renowned artist said that napping in between work was what made him a great painter.
Leonardo Da Vinci: He naps than to sleep. During his Mona Lisa painting, he naps every 4 hours for 15mins and surprisingly replaced sleep with a nap.
Bill Clinton: As some of us might know, he was always caught in the act of snoozing in public, and it may not be surprising to know that napping after lunch has been his routine.
Others include Aristotle, Margaret Thatcher, John F. Kennedy and many more.
So, when next you nap, don’t beat up yourself or feel guilty, know that it’s normal and can happen to anyone.
Conclusion
A feeling to nap always arises when the body thinks it has to, though, there are other factors that can cause us to nap. Some of them are sleepless nights, overworking, etc.
But when the napping becomes essence then it may not be normal again, as there may underlying conditions that cause excessing dozing off such as a sleeping disorder, or other neurological conditions.
