I love a good nap. There, I said it. I feel like I have to keep naps a dirty little secret. When you mention naps to people, they think you’re lazy. But a well placed nap in your day can actually make you more productive.

Taking a nap is like rebooting your brain. American journalist Pete Hamill once said, “The replenishing thing that comes with a nap — you end up with two mornings in a day.” Sir Winston Churchill managed on just four hours sleep a night during World War Two — but insisted on a two hour nap in the afternoon.
Albert Einstein reportedly slept for 10 hours a night, plus daytime naps.

Scientists have shown that a 60- 90-minute nap is the equivalent of eight hours of sleep for replenishing the brain.

“It’s only since the industrial revolution we’ve squeezed all our sleep into the night rather than having one or two sleeps through the day,” explains Vincent Walsh, professor of human brain research at University College London.

In one study of 23,681 Greek men over six years, the participants who napped three times per week had a 37 per cent lower risk of dying from heart disease.

Sleep experts have found that daytime naps can improve many things: alertness, creativity, stress, perception, stamina, motor skills and accuracy, enhanced sex life, aid in weight loss, reduce the risk of heart attack, brighten your mood and boost memory.

Daytime naps can be one way to treat sleep deprivation. You can get incredible benefits from 15 to 20 minutes of napping.
With more rest, your brain will be better at processing the glucose you get from food, giving you more mental energy throughout the day.

One of the keys to power napping or “cat napping” is to keep them short. Many experts say 10 to 20 minutes is the ideal duration to bolster energy and heighten alertness. Too long a nap and you risk grogginess. The benefits of a nap can even last for several hours.

For a perfect nap, find a restful, cool, dark place to lie down in, without any noise or distraction. Or invest in a sleep mask and even earplugs.

There you go, permission to nap. Or, if you already enjoy 40 winks, sleep on my friend, sleep on.