If we think of sleep as a gift we can give ourselves each night, napping is a luxury we can enjoy during the day.
This feeling is even stronger for those practicing sleep restriction and stimulus control.
There are many studies pointing to various benefits of taking a nap during the day, such as improving attention1 2 and consolidating memory3. The general recommendation, however, is that naps should not be taken by people suffering from insomnia4, as they reduce your sleep pressure and can disrupt your biological clock. You may recall that we previously saw that naps are actually one of the causes of insomnia perpetuation.
But what about those who had insomnia but have already improved their sleep?
Rules for napping (for those with sleep difficulties)
There are no studies that have analyzed napping in people who have overcome sleep difficulties. So frankly, there is no valid scientific recommendation we can offer you.
Even so, we believe everyone deserves a rest sometimes, and since you'll be venturing into uncharted waters, nothing beats using common sense and a bit of experimentation.
Still, to help you, we decided to establish some rules to facilitate your experiments:
- Only start taking naps after you finish the program, meaning if you're still practicing sleep restriction, you shouldn't be taking naps yet, as you risk throwing all your hard work out the window. If you're still in the program and feeling daytime sleepiness, try using coffee as we recommend in this post. Napping should only be used as a last resort!*
- Limit your nap to 20-30 minutes. As we saw in previous sessions, our sleep is divided into cycles with different stages. By sleeping for less than 30 minutes, you avoid entering the deeper stages, preventing sleep inertia, preventing groggy awakenings, and you still preserve part of your sleep pressure, maintaining your ability to sleep properly that night. Additionally, a study5 examined the benefits of naps of different durations and the results showed that a 10-minute nap produced greater benefits in terms of reducing sleepiness and improving cognitive performance than naps of 30 minutes or more.
- Avoid napping after 5 PM. Again, the idea is to preserve sleep pressure so you can sleep well at night. Our goal is not to risk returning to insomnia.
- If you start having trouble sleeping 1 or 2 days after a nap, stop napping. This doesn't mean you can never nap again, but we suggest you wait about 5 days for your sleep to regulate again. If you want a reference to define what might characterize a poor night's sleep, consider a night where your sleep efficiency is below 80% (if needed, you can use the sleep diary to do this calculation for you!)
Did you happen to take any naps while still practicing sleep restriction? How did you feel afterward? And after the program, did you do any experiments as we mentioned above?
Leave your comment here on the post—we're very curious to know about your experiences.
*We recommend that you don't nap during therapy, but common sense should be above this suggestion. If you feel very strong daytime sleepiness and there's any risk, such as a car accident, we suggest you nap.