“A power nap is a nap that's short — less than 30 minutes long,” says Safia Khan, MD, a specialist in sleep disorders and an assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine and the department of neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
But in general, the term refers to short naps ranging from about 10 to 30 minutes. A power nap that lasts 20 to 30 minutes is usually ideal. It's long enough to give you all the benefits of sleep without leaving you feeling groggy when you wake up.
Research suggests 10 to 20 minutes is the ideal length for a power nap, although short naps lasting up to 30 minutes may provide benefits depending on what time of day you take the nap and how tired you were beforehand. The longer you nap, the more likely you are to enter slow wave sleep.
A 2-hour long nap may leave you feeling groggy and disrupt your nightly sleep cycle. The ideal nap length is either a short power nap (20-minute nap) or up to 90 minutes. A two-hour nap may leave you feeling groggy and hamper your normal sleep cycle.
Is a 45 minute nap good? A 45-minute nap can help pay down sleep debt and improve your thinking skills and memory. But you may also wake up feeling groggy and a 45-minute nap too close to bedtime may make it harder to get the sleep you need that night.
Although 20 minutes is the ideal nap length for most people, it can vary. A person may want to take a series of test naps of around 10–45 minutes to find their ideal nap length.
In general, the best nap length for adults is about 20 minutes and no longer than 30 minutes. Sleeping for 20 minutes allows the napper to get a bit of light sleep to boost alertness without entering into deep sleep. Waking up from deep sleep can cause grogginess and actually worsen sleepiness.
The 60-minute rule means that you'll keep your baby in the crib for naps for at least 60 minutes from the time that they're placed down, even if they're not asleep.
A short nap of 20 to 30 minutes can improve mood, sharpen focus, and reduce fatigue. If you nap for longer than 30 minutes, you may find yourself feeling more groggy and fatigued. However, naps should not replace the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
If you feel tired after a nap, it may be because you slept for too long. "If you nap for too long and wake abruptly from a deeper stage of sleep, you can feel groggy and lethargic upon awakening," said Martin Reed, a certified clinical sleep health expert.
Most babies are sleeping longer at night and have 2–3 daytime naps. Toddlers (1–2 years): 11–14 hours. Young toddlers may still take two naps, but most drop down to one nap a day by 18 months. Preschool (3–5 years): 10–13 hours.
The Bottom Line on the Navy SEAL Power Nap
A power nap (the Navy SEAL version with your legs elevated, or a more typical lying-down-flat version) can definitely be beneficial if you find yourself drowsy during the day, but don't use it as a substitute for getting the nighttime sleep you need on a regular basis.
Strong scientific evidence shows that our brains benefit from a brief period of actual sleep (a nap), not just a quiet period, to recover from fatigue and to help restore alertness. Both short (15-30 minute) and long (1.5-hour) naps can increase alertness.
However, research has shown that a 1-hour nap has many more restorative effects than a 30-minute nap, including a much greater improvement in cognitive functioning. The key to taking a longer nap is to get a sense of how long your sleep cycles are and try to awaken at the end of a sleep cycle.
Most will explain the Hour Rule to mean one hour in the crib. If your child falls asleep prior to that hour ending, then you get your child up the moment they wake. If they don't sleep at all for the full hour, you get them up at the hour. This is about the extent to the Hour Rule for most.
The 15 minute rule
If, after 15 minutes, you find that you are not asleep, don't stay in bed. if you're still awake after another 15 minutes, get up again and repeat. This helps with associating your bed with sleep and has been found to be one of the nost effective strategies to address long-term sleep difficulties.
The Mayo Clinic advises people to nap for just 10 to 20 minutes. That may seem ridiculously short -- pointless, even -- but research shows that naps of this length improve alertness without the groggy post-nap feeling most people are familiar with.
"You can get incredible benefits from 15 to 20 minutes of napping," she says. "You reset the system and get a burst of alertness and increased motor performance. That's what most people really need to stave off sleepiness and get an energy boost."
The 2-3-4 nap schedule is for babies who are on two naps a day. The first wake window would be 2 hours, the second would be 3 hours and the last wake window for bed is 4 hours.
A short nap of 10-20 minutes is precisely enough shut-eye to reap the many restorative benefits of napping. 30 minutes could make you feel too groggy once you're awake. A 90-minute nap is considered best for a longer option.
The 45-minute nap is really common, and there are a few specific reasons why: Forty-five minutes is not a coincidence; it is exactly one sleep cycle for a baby. At around the 30-45 minute mark into the sleep cycle, your baby is in a lighter stage of sleep, trying to transition from this cycle to the next.
Limit your nap to 45 minutes or less, if you need to spring into action after dozing. Otherwise, you may drift into slow-wave sleep. Waking from this stage results in sleep inertia, that grogginess and disorientation that can last for half an hour or more. But you might want to take a long nap, at least 90 minutes.
A 20-minute power nap is best for your body and mind. You wake up feeling more alert and refreshed. Sleeping more than 20 minutes can make you feel sluggish, groggy, and more tired than before you napped, but if you have time, you may sleep for 90 minutes to complete a full sleep cycle.