I tried napping everyday for a week, and it was easily the worst idea – and week’s sleep – I’ve ever had.
Who doesn’t love a good nap? While some people might think that napping is lazy, having regular naps has many benefits, including improving your brain health, memory and reaction times, and helping with your overall sleep quality and quantity.
I’ve covered sleep and wellness on T3 for years now, and am always happy to be the guinea pig who tries TikTok sleep hacks and tests the best mattresses. I’m not the most frequent napper, and typically only have one on the weekend if I’m feeling tired, but I thought I’d challenge myself to see if I could nap everyday and how it affected me.
Spoiler alert, it didn’t go well – here’s why.
I tried napping everyday: the set-up
I tried this challenge from Wednesday to Sunday when I was working from home for the week – I’m not sure my colleagues would have appreciated me napping at my desk! So, in general, it was a lot easier for me to take a quick nap than if I was working in the office full time.
To set myself up for success, I followed our 4-step checklist for having the perfect nap. Timing was key here, as how long you should nap for is always up for discussion. Some sources say a 20-30 minute nap is best, while others state you should nap for up to 90 minutes to conquer ‘sleep debt’ if you didn’t get your usual hours of sleep the night before.
I decided to stick to the former, so I reserved 20 minutes of my lunch break between 1 and 2pm to have a quick nap.
(Image credit: ANTONI SHKRABA production from Pexels)
Day 1: sweet, sweet sleep
Once I had my perimeters in place, I started my lunch break, and did chores around the house and ate lunch before settling down for a nap. I got comfortable on the sofa but avoided a blanket because I thought that’d make me too cosy and less likely to want to wake up.
Speaking of which, I made sure to set a 20 minute alarm to wake myself up. Once I sorted this, I found myself drifting off quite quickly and within the time frame, I’d say I got about 15 minutes of light sleep. I woke up feeling a little groggy but once I went and sat back at my desk, I was awake and ready to continue working. That afternoon felt really productive and I didn’t feel sleepy until bedtime, so I counted day one as a success.
Day 2-3: I feel disgusting
Unfortunately, it all went down hill from there. Excited about the success of the first day, I stuck to the same routine – chores, lunch and nap. After waking up from my nap on the second day, I felt extremely nauseous, drowsy and couldn’t shake off that feeling so the afternoon felt like a drag.
I made a big mistake on the third day which definitely affected that day’s nap. My husband worked from home with me and I stupidly asked him to wake me up at a certain time rather than set an alarm. He woke me up at the time I specified, but I felt so tired that I dozed for ‘five more minutes’ which actually led to 15.
Needless to say, I woke up with a start and sat at my desk staring into space before trying to get back on track. Again, this led to a long, uncomfortable afternoon. On both days, I also felt I needed more coffee which wasn’t the case on day one.
Day 4-5: weekend naps for the win
I had a few plans on the weekend but made time in the late afternoon for a nap. The weekend naps felt a lot better than the three in the week – probably because I didn’t have to get back to work after them – but this also meant I napped for too long.
The fourth day felt more like the first day of the test – I stuck to 20 minutes and felt rejuvenated when I woke up. But on the fifth, I napped for about an hour which just made me feel lazy. As a result, I rushed to do things before I went to sleep again at bedtime.
Despite it making me feel groggy at times, I found that napping before 3pm and only for 20 minutes didn’t affect my nighttime rest, whereas sleeping for longer and later in the day on weekends meant I didn’t feel sleepy when it was time to go to bed. It didn’t keep me up too long but I noticed a difference.
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Napping everyday: the verdict
So, what’s the verdict? Two out of the five days were a success, while three of the days were a great big fail. I kept to the rules pretty closely and while I had a couple mishaps, I wouldn’t say it completely disrupted the challenge as my second day was the same as the first, except the results were much more negative.
My sleep has always been positive and easy to come by. I rarely find it hard to fall asleep and don’t tend to wake up in the night, but by introducing naps, I felt I was actually making my sleep worse. After napping, I felt less productive, distracted and like I was in a dream-like state which made it extremely hard to concentrate or want to do anything.
Overall, napping everyday for a week made me realise that I don’t need to nap everyday! It’s just not necessary, nor is it worth it for me. Since the challenge, I’ve had the occasional lunchtime nap if I’m feeling really tired but I’ve mostly switched back to viewing naps as more of an occasional weekend ‘treat’.
Napping everyday isn’t something I’d try again, but it could be a success for some people. But for me, I’ll be sticking to the golden rules for good sleep hygiene instead.
