Naps for desk workers: how long, when and where

For most people who work at a desk, the best nap is 10 to 20 minutes long, taken in the early afternoon, with an alarm set. That is long enough to take the edge off the afternoon slump and short enough that you wake up clear rather than groggy. It also tends to leave your night's sleep alone.

Longer naps have their uses, but they come with a catch. This post covers how the length of a nap changes what you get from it, when to take one, how to manage it at home or in an office, and when needing a nap is a sign of something worth checking.

Short naps vs long naps

Sleep comes in stages. For the first few minutes you are in light sleep and easy to wake. Stay asleep longer and you sink into deep sleep. Then, roughly an hour and a half after dropping off, you tend to come out the other side of one full cycle. The length of a nap decides which of those stages the alarm finds you in.

For a working day, aim for the first row. The others are for days off, or for nights you already know will be short.

One practical detail: most people take a few minutes to fall asleep, so set the alarm for about 20 to 25 minutes after you lie down, not 20 minutes after you think you dropped off.

Why you sometimes wake up feeling worse

The heavy, muddled feeling after a long nap has a name: sleep inertia. If the alarm goes off while you are in deep sleep, your brain takes a while to come fully back. It can last from a few minutes to half an hour or so, and while it does you are slower and clumsier than you were before you lay down.

That is why a 45 minute nap so often feels like a mistake. You slept more than you would in a 20 minute nap, but you woke from the wrong part of it.

If you do wake up groggy, a few things help it pass sooner:

• Get up straight away instead of lying there.
• Find daylight: open the blinds or step outside.
• Drink a glass of water and splash some on your face.
• Give yourself a few minutes before anything that needs you sharp, and don't drive until you feel fully awake.

Some people swear by the coffee nap: drink a coffee, then lie down at once for about 15 to 20 minutes. Caffeine takes a while to kick in, so it arrives just as you wake. A few small studies suggest the pair works better than either alone, though the evidence is thin. If you try it, keep it early in the afternoon, for the reasons in this post on when to stop drinking coffee.

The best time to nap

For most people on an ordinary schedule, the best window is early afternoon, roughly 1 to 3 PM. The body clock has a natural dip in alertness around then, which is part of why the post-lunch slump arrives even on days when lunch was light. Napping into that dip is easier, because you are going with your body instead of against it.

Later naps cost more. A nap at 5 PM uses up some of the sleep pressure you need to fall asleep at night, and the evening can end with you lying awake. If you go to bed late, you can shift the window a little later, but keep the nap well clear of the evening.

The other good time is before you need it. If you know a long drive or a late event is coming, a short nap beforehand is a better plan than fighting through on coffee.

Napping when you work from home

Home is the easy place to nap, which also makes it the easy place to overdo it. A few habits keep it short and useful.

• Use a real alarm. A timer on your phone is the surest choice. The Clock app on your Mac has timers and alarms too, if the Mac will be awake to ring.
• Stay on top of the covers. Some people find that a couch, or a blanket on top of a made bed, says "short rest" in a way that climbing under the covers does not.
• Make it dark and quiet enough. An eye mask and a pair of earplugs turn any room into a nap room.
• Lock your Mac first. Press Control, Command and Q to lock the screen, so your work waits behind your password, safe from anyone (or any cat) walking past the keyboard.
• Get up when the alarm goes. The snooze button is how a 20 minute nap becomes a 50 minute one, and you know how that ends.

If you use Notchpals, it treats a nap like any other time away from the desk. After 2 minutes with no keyboard or mouse, every character holds back, and the minutes you spend asleep don't count toward your time at the Mac. Come back after 15 minutes or more and your host says welcome back. If that host is Snooze, the Sleep area's sloth, it takes your nap rather well.

SnoozeOh... you're back... I didn't notice you left... I was napping.

Notchpals has no sounds, so it can't wake you. Set that alarm.

Napping at the office

Harder, but often possible.

• Ask about a quiet room. Some workplaces have a wellness room or a first-aid room that can be booked for a short rest. You may not be the first to ask.
• Use your car if you drive in. Parked somewhere safe, seat back, doors locked, many people manage a decent 20 minutes. Skip it on hot days.
• Rest at your desk as a last resort. Headphones, an eye mask and your head on folded arms is less restful than lying down, but it beats nothing.
• Rest even if you can't sleep. Ten minutes with your eyes closed and slow breathing isn't sleep, but many people find it takes the edge off the afternoon all the same.
• Put it in your calendar. A 30 minute block marked as a break keeps meetings out of the slot and saves you from explaining it every day.

If napping at work isn't an option at all, a walk in daylight after lunch is a good answer to the slump instead.

When naps hide a sleep problem

An occasional nap after a short night is normal. Needing one all the time can be a sign that your nights aren't doing their job. It is worth seeing a doctor if:

• You need a nap most days, even though you spend enough time in bed at night.
• You fall asleep without meaning to: in meetings, in front of the TV, or behind the wheel. If you ever feel drowsy while driving, stop somewhere safe.
• You wake from a full night still unrefreshed.
• Someone tells you that you snore loudly, or seem to stop breathing in your sleep.
• The daytime sleepiness is new, or getting worse.

These have many possible causes, from simply too little sleep to conditions such as sleep apnea, and a doctor can help work out which. A nap can paper over the symptom for years, so don't let it stand in for asking.

The reverse is worth knowing too. If you struggle to fall or stay asleep at night, the usual advice is to skip daytime naps, so that all the sleep pressure is saved for bedtime. Try a week without naps and see whether your nights improve, and talk to a doctor if they don't.

For most afternoons, a regular bedtime and enough sleep at night do more than any nap, as this post on keeping a consistent bedtime explains. When the day does call for one, keep it short, take it early, and set an alarm you will actually hear.