Power napping: Is it worth it (and how do you do it properly)?

Key takeaways:

• Best length: It’s best to aim for 10-20 minutes (up to 30 minutes maximum) to reduce grogginess (sleep inertia).
• Best time: A nap in the early afternoon (around 1-3pm) is the sweet spot for many people.
• Best for: A quick boost in alertness, mood and performance, especially when you’re short on sleep.
• Not a substitute: If sleep is regularly disrupted, try to improve your night-time routine and consistency before incorporating afternoon siestas.
• Vitality’s big finding: Bedtime consistency – establishing a routine in which we sleep within a one-hour window each night – appears to be more beneficial to our health than the number of hours we sleep.

Battling the mid-afternoon slump? A short, immaculately timed nap might well be the reset you need.

Just don't overdo it or let it disrupt your established routine, experts tell us.

With new Vitality research helping to show that regular sleep habits - not just the number of hours we get - is a key contributor to us living healthier, longer lives, here we unpack the pros and cons of the 'power nap'.

And ask: is a super-short snooze really our secret weapon, or is it sleep sabotage?

What is a power nap?

Vitality partner Headspace defines a power nap as a short sleep of around 10 to 30 minutes.

It’s designed to refresh your brain without moving into deeper stages of sleep that could leave you feeling heavy-headed when you wake up.

As an independent sleep consultant Dr Neil Stanley explains: “When your phone is really low and you plug it in, sometimes the battery level leaps much higher than you expect – that's what a power nap does for your body and brain.”

In other words, a short nap can revitalise us far more than we would expect, helping us recoup our energy across a very short space of time.

Do power naps actually work?

For many people, yes – especially when you’re sleep deprived or when your day demands high concentration.

A NASA study on pilots found that napping “can maintain or improve subsequent performance, subjective alertness and mood”.

It also shows that a 26-minute nap improved alertness in pilots by 54%, suggesting that 20 minutes of shut-eye might give you that boost you need

“Power naps can help if you have trouble sleeping at night, but if you're taking naps over a long period of time, this could exacerbate any sleep problems”

Rachel McGuinness, sleep expert and CBTI therapist

American scientists have even suggested that a power nap could be more effective than caffeine.

They discovered that afternoon nappers had better recall memory and improved learning on physical tasks compared with those relying on lattes.

That said, Vitality research helps provide a bigger-picture lens: daily energy hacks (like naps) work best when they sit on top of healthy night-time sleep habits – particularly regularity.

Vitality’s sleep paper draws on more than 47 million nights of tracked sleep, finding that healthier sleep patterns reduce risk of mortality and hospitalisation.

How long should a nap be?

In a nutshell: short and sweet is usually better.

Sleep expert and CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia) therapist Rachel McGuiness recommends: “The ideal nap time should be between 10 and 30 minutes. Any longer, and you can go into a deep sleep and wake up feeling groggy.”

This groggy, sluggish feeling is known as sleep inertia and can take up to an hour to shake off.

A practical rule of thumb:

• 10-20 minutes: best for a quick boost in focus
• 20-30 minutes: can work well for lifted energy and concentration, but you’re closer to the “grogginess” line
• 30+ minutes: it’s more likely to leave you feeling foggy and can interfere with night-time sleep for some people

When is the best time to take a power nap?

The time of day you choose to take a power nap has an impact on how you feel.

You should only take a nap between 1pm and 3pm or 5pm and 7pm to avoid disrupting the body’s natural drive for sleep at night.

“Around 6:30pm should be the latest time you should nap, so a commuter nodding off on the train home is still OK,” says McGuinness.

Can power napping be bad for you?

Power naps aren’t “bad”, but they can be unhelpful in a few common situations.

If you’re napping to compensate for chronic poor sleep

If you’re constantly short on sleep, a nap can be a temporary fix rather than the solution.

The Vitality sleep research frames sleep as a behaviour that can be “measured, practiced and improved” – highlighting the value of consistent sleep habit.

If naps become a daily crutch

“Power naps can help if you have trouble sleeping at night, but if you're taking naps over a long period of time, this could exacerbate any sleep problems,” says McGuinness.

If you’re always feeling exhausted

If you feel tired all the time, it’s worth checking in with your GP to rule out any conditions such as anaemia or thyroid problems.

What matters most, regularity or length of sleep?

Vitality's research found that both duration and regularity matter – and that adopting consistent sleep behaviours can add up to four years to life expectancy.

It also introduces the “7-1 rule”: seven hours of sleep starting within a one-hour window of your established bedtime routine.

“We believe that reframing sleep as an active, health-promoting behaviour shifts the prevailing perception from something passive to a behaviour that is measurable, improvable and essential to overall wellbeing,” says Dr Katie Tryon, Deputy CEO at VitalityHealth UK.

Obtaining seven hours of sleep per night and maintaining a consistent bedtime within a one-hour period, can reduce mortality risk by 24% and lower hospital admissions by 7% – saving the NHS £1.35bn a year.

• The fundamentals of sleep | Magazine | Vitality

So where do naps fit in?

Think of a power nap as a useful tool – especially for a one-off late night – but one that works best when your baseline sleep habits are steady.

“If you're sleeping well at night, you shouldn’t need to nap during the day," says Stanley.

How do you take a “good” nap (without waking up worse)?

Keep it simple:

• Set an alarm for 20 minutes (or 30 minutes maximum).
• Keep it comfortable; you’re aiming for light sleep, but not a full bedtime setup.
• Dim the light and reduce noise if you can (even a few minutes of calm still helps).
• Avoid napping too late in the day, especially if you struggle to fall asleep at night.

So, is power napping worth it?

Yes – when you use it strategically.

Taking a power nap has clear benefits for your body and brain. Got a big meeting this afternoon? Getting forty winks over lunch could help you stay on top of your game.

But, while a power nap can deliver a short-term lift in alertness and mood, it’s best not to rely on daytime snoozes to plug the gaps in a poor sleep schedule.

The real win is consistency.

Vitality’s sleep paper suggests that building consistent sleep behaviours, including keeping bedtime within a regular one-hour window – the “7-1” rule – is strongly linked with better health outcomes and increased life expectancy (up to four years).

So, if you’re napping every day just to get through, treat this as a friendly nudge to look at and review your night-time routine, because the best “power nap” is still a good night’s sleep.

Related: 6 common sleeping myths put to bed