How To Power Nap - Napping Benefits & Tips For Successful Naps

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Wondering how to power nap? Great! You've come to the napping queen!

Napping during the day improves productivity, to say the VERY least. A power nap does the body, mind and soul lots of good.

I come from a long line of nappers. Both of my parents take a nap almost every single day and have for as long as I can remember. Naturally, I followed in their foot steps and I also nap daily. The benefits of naps are so positive that I couldn't imagine not taking frequent snoozes!

Below you'll find benefits of napping daily as well as how to find the time to implement this practice and my own personal napping tips. Happy napping!

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How To Power Nap: Napping Benefits

There are fantastic physical and mental health benefits related to taking a daily power nap.

In my experience, naps improve my...

productivity
alertness
motivation
focus
creative thinking

It's like a little escape for my brain, because during the nap I allow my mind to shut off. After all, the things I'm thinking about will be there when I wake up. :)

Physically, a nap gives my body a chance to relax, whether I'm on my feet all day or I'm hunched over at my computer for hours. There are a lot of studies and statistics that show the benefits of a daily snooze and tips on how to power nap, so check them out here!

How To Power Nap: Find The Time & Place

There is a common misconception that a nap has to be this long activity that people claim they don't have time for, when it's in fact the opposite. It's like a fitness routine - you only need to do a little every day or every other day in order to reap the benefits.

What you do and where you work are not reasons to skip a power nap. I use to take power naps at my desk when I worked for another company, and I also do it now working from home. Whether it's in your car, at your desk or at home, get some shut eye in any quiet, available location.

If you keep track of the time that is wasted on procrastination and/or any other time-sucking activities, I guarantee it will be more than the suggested 20 or 30 minute nap. Take that wasted time and put it to good use...a power nap!

Test it out and see for yourself. Let me know what you think by commenting in the comment box below. I'd love to hear from you!

How To Power Nap: 5 Tips For Successful Naps

Yep! That's me and our little Pug, Brisket, taking a nap.

As a life long napper, I have some more tidbits that have helped me and will hopefully aid you in taking successful naps.

Find the right time. Some people like to nap right after lunch, others (like me) prefer the middle of the afternoon. My ideal nap time is 3pm. That is the time that I begin to lose focus, so I'll stop what I'm doing and take a 30-minute power nap. I wake up refreshed and still have time to get work done before I need to start preparing dinner.
Don't oversleep. If you take too long of a nap, you'll have trouble waking up, will feel groggy and will probably decrease your productivity. Set an alarm, and keep your nap short and sweet. A great way to wake up happy is to use the Sleep Cycle app.
Quiet, dark and covered. Do the best you can with this one; I find it much easier to fall asleep if I'm in a quiet, darker setting with a blanket. If you don't have shades on your office window, then perhaps you could keep an eye mask in your desk drawer. Likewise, you could use ear plugs to drown out the sounds of a busy workplace.
Get comfortable. Interpret this any way you'd like. For me, getting comfortable means loosening my pony tail and taking off my socks. It could mean loosening your tie, taking off your shoes, changing into sweat pants, taking off your jewelry, whatever you can do to make yourself more comfortable.
Focus on your breathing. This is such a great little trick. Whenever I have trouble quieting my mind (which is often!), I focus on my breath. I literally picture the air filling my stomach as I breath in and then the air leaving my body as I exhale. When I do this, I don't waste any time trying to fall asleep...I just fall asleep. It's lovely!