Napping can contribute to insomnia, but short naps of 30 minutes or less can be beneficial. Long naps disrupt natural sleep rhythms and entering deep sleep during the day can disturb nighttime sleep. For those with insomnia, avoiding napping may be best, and some may need to give up napping to reverse sleep patterns. Seeking medical advice is recommended for those who continue to struggle with insomnia.
Napping is one of the many things that can lead to insomnia. However, many medical experts believe napping is beneficial for humans, under the right circumstances. Therefore, it’s important to realize that not all naps cause a problem. It’s excessive napping, as well as choosing the wrong times to nap, that appears to contribute to insomnia.
Many people enjoy a good nap, feeling refreshed and ready to tackle activities, even after just 10 minutes of sleep. Taking long naps during the day, however, can disrupt your natural sleep rhythms, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep for the rest of the night. Keeping your daytime naps to 30 minutes or less can help you avoid insomnia. It’s also wise to avoid napping close to the time you normally go to bed.
There’s a science behind keeping daytime naps so short. For most people, it takes 45 to 90 minutes to enter deep sleep. If you allow yourself to go into deep sleep during the day, your internal sleep clock may get thrown off, disturbing your nighttime sleep and leading to insomnia. Also, when you enter deep sleep while taking a nap and have to wake up without sleep for several hours, you may wake up feeling sluggish and unable to function properly.
If you suffer from insomnia, it might be best to avoid napping altogether. This may sound a bit harsh, as you may feel that adding any amount of sleep to your sleep bank must be beneficial. Unfortunately, however, taking a nap while struggling with insomnia is likely to have the opposite effect, leaving you even more sleepless during your normal sleep times. With even less regular sleep to look forward to, you may feel even more tired and worn out.
Some individuals find that daytime napping leads to a complete change in their sleep patterns. They fall asleep so much during the day that the night starts to feel like busy time. They are sleepy during the day and awake at night. To reverse this pattern, they need to give up daytime napping and introduce enough activity to avoid falling asleep during the day. After a while, most people are able to reverse the pattern, getting most of their night’s sleep again.
For many who suffer from insomnia, forgoing naps may not be enough to ensure restful sleep. It is, however, a wise start. If you suffer from insomnia and avoiding naps does not help, ask your doctor for advice and help.
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