Coffee Nap

Drinking a cup of coffee followed by a 20-minute rest can give you an effective siesta that fuels your day and refreshes the mind. I have been doing this recently as I am a terrible sleeper at night and these wee coffee naps help me get through my day. Great if I’m off work and needing to finish reading a book and find myself drifting off on the sofa or if I’m studying or need a little boost before hitting the gym later.

Sound madness or even counter-intuitive? After all, we drink caffeine for alertness, not to sleep. Here’s how it works and the science behind it. A quick coffee nap is an incredible way to boost energy and productivity during your day because of what goes on in your brain as it’s happening. When you drink caffeine, it passes to your small intestine and gets absorbed into your bloodstream. It then kickstarts your brain chemistry by blocking receptors normally filled by similar energy transferring molecules of Adenosine, a chemical compound in your brain known for causing drowsiness. Adenosine makes you feel sleepy by slowing down your brain’s nerve cell activity; so when caffeine binds to your receptors instead of Adenosine, the reverse happens… When caffeine takes Adenosine’s place in the receptors, it has the opposite effect; the nerve cells speed up giving us that jolt of caffeine energy and focus. he brilliance of the coffee nap is that sleep naturally clears Adenosine from your brain! I like to think of it as “steam-cleaning” the neurological pathways From the moment you drink your coffee to the moment you metabolize it is about 20 minutes of pure opportunity to not only rest, but to open up those Adenosine receptors to the caffeine you just imbibed You don’t have to fall into a deep sleep for a coffee nap to work. Half-sleep or “nonsleep dozing” has proven to be just as effective. I usually kick back on my sofa, TV off, parrot in a quiet mood and then I stick an eye mask on to darken my vision. A strong cup with 200mg of caffeine in the optimal amount, try to get it down your neck rapid and not sip it too long, caffeine tablets can work too although I have only tried it by drinking coffee. It’s important not to sleep any longer than 20 minutes as you can fall into sleep inertia, which is harder to wake from. You also need to be awake when that caffeine reaches your brain so I get my watch to vibrate on my wrist or my phone to ring. I have experienced little surreal dreams whilst coffee napping when I a sleepy limbo state, little recalls of memories I thought I’d forgotten…..quite strange. It has been scientifically proven to work. In several UK studies, researchers found that when subjects took a 15 minute coffee nap, they scored higher on a driving simulator test. In Japan, scientists founds their subjects scored higher on memory tests after coffee naps.  Subjects also claimed they felt less tired.