This Is How Long You Should Nap for Optimal Brain Health

Fact checked by Nick Blackmer

• A new study found that taking a short nap during the day may boost brain health.

• Researchers defined a “short nap” as five to 15 minutes, with 30 minutes being the most amount of time someone should consider napping for a “short nap” timeframe.

• Experts recommend individuals prioritize consistency in their napping habits and stop taking naps if they find themselves waking up groggy after a short timeframe.

Taking a short nap during the day may help boost your brain health as you get older, according to a new study.

The study, which was published in the journal Sleep Health, analyzed DNA samples and brain scans from more than 35,000 people between the ages of 40 to 69 who were involved in the UK Biobank study.

The research team analyzed genetic code that was linked to participants’ likelihood of taking regular naps, and then compared results from brain health analyses and cognition tests between people who had the napping genes and those without those genes.

People who took regular naps were more likely to have larger amounts of total brain volume; the difference in volume was between 2.5 to 6.5 years of aging between nappers and non-nappers.

“Our study considers the potential beneficial role of regular naps independent of the influence of chronic disease,” study co-author Hassan Dashti, PhD, an assistant investigator in Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Health.

Dashti said his team’s findings indicate that “more frequent daytime napping may be protective for the brain.”

It’s important to note that the study didn’t find that taking short daytime naps actually causes better brain health. However, it did find a link that sleep experts say is intriguing.

How Short Naps Contribute to Brain Health

Research on napping and brain health has had mixed results in the past.

A large study of 358,451 participants published last year linked regular naps with a higher risk of developing high blood pressure and stroke. However, that study didn’t look at how long people napped, and the researchers noted that taking long naps could be a sign of a serious underlying health condition.

Dashti said his team’s study didn’t explore why short daytime naps may be helpful—it simply found a link—but there are some theories on what could be behind this.

One theory is that short naps assist with sleep deprivation individuals may be experiencing.

“The average adult needs approximately eight hours of sleep per night and some studies estimate that at least 40% of Americans are getting less than that,” sleep medicine specialist Yonatan Greenstein, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Rutgers, told Health.

“For those of us that are sleep deprived, a nap is beneficial in that it partially repletes the sleep debt of an individual,” he said. “This will result in increased energy levels and cognitive performance.”

W. Christopher Winter, MD, a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and founder of the Sleep Unplugged podcast, said that it’s possible people are “designed to be polyphasic sleepers”—meaning, they should be sleeping over more than one phase a day.

“My personal belief is that so many individuals get an inadequate amount of sleep that napping can tip the balance of rest back in a favorable direction,” Winter said.

How Long Is a “Short Nap?”

Lead study author Valentina Paz, a PhD student and research assistant at University College London defined a “short nap” as anything between five and 15 minutes, and no more than 30 minutes.

Related: Here's How to Get the Sleep Amount—and Quality—You Need

Optimizing a Short Nap

If you’re able to squeeze a short nap into your day, and you want to try to optimize your experience, Winter recommends trying to nap at the same time every day.

“The naps should end at a consistent time and happen in a dark, quiet place,” he said. “A horizontal position is best.”

Paz suggested that people opt for an earlier nap rather than a brief evening snooze. “Naps should be intentional, short, and take place earlier on in the day—ideally in the early afternoon—as to not compromise or disrupt nighttime sleep.”

Winter also suggested ending your nap with exposure to light, moving around, and having some food to help yourself wake up. This will encourage your body to wake up more energized, instead of being tempted to hit the snooze button and overdo your napping timeframe.

Noting How Your Body Reacts to Daytime Naps

If you have space in your day to take a short nap and you feel like it’s beneficial for you, doctors say you should go for it. But it’s important to keep tabs on how you feel afterward.

“Paying attention to how you feel is important, as well as how it affects sleeping at night,” Winter said.

If you end up feeling sluggish after your nap, it’s a good indicator that this strategy isn’t a good one for you.

“Instead, focusing on other healthy behaviors such as exercise or general sleep hygiene for nighttime sleep may be more beneficial,” Dashti said.

It’s also important to consider how much you rely on naps to get through your day.

Greenstein said, “If you feel that daily napping is necessary to optimal function despite getting an average of eight hours of sleep per night, I recommend first seeing a sleep medicine specialist to ensure there isn’t an underlying sleep disorder.”

Related: What Insomnia Feels Like: You're Always Tired but Not Sleepy

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Read the original article on Health.