After a long and stressful day at school, I go home, throw my bag on the floor and jump into bed. I check the time on my phone. 3:47 p.m. I plan out when to do homework, eat dinner and accomplish all the things I need to do before bed. I decide I’ll get all of it done eventually, just after I take a quick nap. So, I close my eyes, cozy up, and pass out. Suddenly, I wake up, except something’s different. It’s dark outside. I check my phone again. 8:24 pm. Great. I’ve wasted the entire afternoon sleeping when I wanted to be in bed in a few hours anyway. Except now, I’m wide awake and won’t be able to sleep for a long time. This used to be me. Since then, I’ve grown to believe that naps are detrimental to people who are over the age of 5 and I rarely ever nap.
Before we start, I understand that power naps exist and I fully agree that taking a 10-30 minute nap is beneficial. But I’ve never had a successful power nap and never heard of someone else taking a successful power nap either; it always overextends and they wake up feeling more tired afterward. This is from a side effect of napping called sleep inertia, where you feel groggy and disoriented after waking up from a long nap.
Naps can hurt your health, too. According to Harvard Medical, studies taken from adults who regularly take long daily naps have been linked to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and depression. So what’s the point of getting this “rest” just to not feel rested, have trouble actually resting during the night and have a higher risk of these diseases? Most people are able to sleep eight hours at night if they try, but just aren’t trying to. If you have a sleep disorder or disease, your quality of sleep will differ, but there are always methods to help, like visiting a sleep specialist.
Personally, I’ve paid close attention to fulfilling eight or more hours of sleep a night. Because of this, my sleep schedule is now consistent and healthy and I don’t see the appeal of naps anymore. Now, I follow a pretty similar routine every day that prevents me from napping, as well as being more productive to get everything done. Every night, I push myself to complete my homework before 8 p.m., so by that time, I’m able to get myself ready to sleep. Then, I get into bed and comfortably fall asleep with Netflix on before 11 p.m. If I’m having trouble sleeping, I’ll use lavender essential oils, deep breathing exercises or watch something relaxing to tire me out. But, it’s all about finding a schedule and routine that fits you and allows you to sleep the amount you need to function. The goal is to spend the day striving towards your goals, slowly tiring you out until nighttime. Believe me, it’s hard. I still get tired sometimes during the day, but I’d much rather chug my cold brew and continue the day than ruin my sleep schedule with a nap.
Don’t read this and think I hate sleep because I don’t; I value my sleep. I believe that good quality sleep is everything and strongly affects how you move throughout the day, but napping ruins that sleep. Instead, I get home and check the time and when it’s too early, I let the thought of a nap pass my mind, do everything I have to do and go to bed super early to get a solid eight hours of sleep.
