Those who get up early are particularly familiar with this: by midday at the latest, your mood starts to drop, your eyes are heavy and your concentration decreases. Everything in the body goes into rest mode. These people then feel like taking a nap – and when used correctly, it has a demonstrably healthy effect on the body.
“The short afternoon nap is not called a power nap in English for nothing,” explains health scientist Maria Schumann in an interview with t3n. “However, to achieve the desired result, it should not take longer than 20 minutes,” she adds.
Powernap: Perfect conditions in the home office
The home office is the ideal place for a power nap. (Photo: Shutterstock)
According to the expert, there is otherwise the possibility that sleepers will slip into dream or REM sleep or even deep or non-REM sleep. Afterwards they would be tired, listless and unbalanced – anything but fit and relaxed.
In addition, a power nap should ideally take place after lunch or in the early afternoon at the latest. “Otherwise, the risk of disturbing your night’s sleep increases,” says Maria Schumann. Sleep, it can be said, is a science in itself. Healthy sleep requires a few basic requirements. And: Not everyone should take an afternoon nap!
“In the home office, the conditions are ideal for a power nap.”
“People with sleep disorders benefit less from power naps. With every nap during the day we reduce the so-called sleep pressure,” explains Maria Schumann. “This promotes difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.” However, all other working people would benefit.
People who work from home in particular should integrate it occasionally. “In the home office, the conditions are ideal for a power nap,” says the health scientist. “While only a few companies currently provide relaxation rooms for employees, they can be designed within their own four walls.”
The home therefore has many advantages: “Here you can darken the windows a little, turn on soothing sounds or anything else that helps us quickly calm down and fall asleep,” said the expert in the t3n interview. “And even if we didn’t sleep but just dozed a bit: working from home allows us to slow down!”
Relaxing power nap: everything in moderation!
A recently published study by the University of California came to another interesting result: According to the researchers, power naps do not always have their healthy effects right away. A total of 3,000 test subjects were followed during their afternoon nap for five years.
As the scientists found, the risk of serious heart and circulatory diseases only decreased due to afternoon naps in those who took a power nap once or twice a week. For all other participants who slept more often at midday, the recovery effect diminished.
Editorial recommendations
A study by Guangzhou Medical University also came to a similar conclusion: According to this, the risk of death increased significantly for those who slept longer than the recommended 20 minutes a day. For the study, 300,000 people were followed during their afternoon nap over a period of one month.
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