10 Nov Coffee naps
Have you heard of coffee naps? As a sleep scientist, I have had a lot of experience with both sleep and with naps… often out of necessity.
The premise behind the idea of a coffee nap is that both coffee (caffeine) and naps actually improve alertness. We generally feel better after naps and also after a coffee, and improve our cogitative function too. The caveat to this good feeling is that we need to be wary of sleep inertia when having naps. Sleep inertia commonly occurs when waking from a deeper sleep. Sleep inertia is that groggy, “I don’t want to get out of bed” feeling. Irrespective of whether or not you actually get off to sleep in a 15-20 minute nap, you should still improve your cognitive function (memory, reaction times, concentration etc). Combine this with some caffeine and you should really be feeling better. That’s the idea of the coffee nap.
The coffee nap often notes to drink the coffee before the nap. You would need to drink the coffee quickly, then have a timed sleep opportunity with the end of the nap coinciding with the onset of the coffee hit. Seems pretty technical. If you don’t want so juggle so many balls in the air, just have the coffee when you wake from a nap. The effects of the nap will last longer than the 20 minutes the coffee will take to work, so you should still get the double hit anyway. The double hits from the coffee and the nap may not come at the same time but that shouldn’t really matter.
Here is a short video about coffee naps – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaI5LWj6ams