Science supports taking naps

With a hectic college life during the semester, students may find it difficult with their schedule for a good night’s rest. To compensate for this, many students take midday naps.

Right: Grace Quattrocchi, freshman criminal justice major, takes a quick nap while waiting for the rest of her Starbucks order. Photo courtesy of Emily Boyce. Left:
Eddie Morgan, sophomore finance major, rests in the
Don Taft University Center. Photo courtesy of Brandon Neal.

“I only take naps when [I am]tired. Tired to the point when I cannot read a sentence, I’m falling asleep at my desk,” said Sajan Parikh, junior public health major.

Jamie Tartar, neuroscience professor and researcher in the Department of Psychology, said these naps are actually beneficial for your health, especially short-term naps.

“If you feel some of the cognitive detriments we associate with being fatigued and sleepy, even a short 20–30-minute nap can do a lot to improve that,” Tartar said. “Napping can be a really good way of combatting sleep loss.”

The quality and length of rest can immensely affect bodily functions and everything from energy to mood.

According to Cornell Health, most college-aged students need 7–9 hours of sleep in order to avoid daytime drowsiness.

“A little bit of sleep is always better than no sleep; 24 hours of sleep deprivation is absolutely horrific,” Tartar said.

“This is not something you want to do. We have tested it on healthy young college students and terrible things happen emotionally and physically.”

Short-term naps can fit well in an active schedule, as it does not take too much time out of the day and gives rejuvenating effects.

Sonya Okungu, junior in the optometry program, agrees that naps are advantageous, and tries to squeeze them in during the day.

“I do feel better [after a nap]. I nap because I usually do not sleep the night before. I get up at 7 a.m. most days. So, If I am extremely tired, I am like OK, ‘I need to close my eyes for a second,’” Okungu said.

The length of these midday naps is often important to monitor, as longer length naps can be possibly detrimental to your health, Tartar said.

“We want to avoid taking naps that span from 45 minutes to an hour, because what it is going to do is put your brain into what’s called ‘deep sleep,'” Tartar said. “When we first go to sleep at night, we experience a light sleep, and then with continued sleep goes into deep sleep and then go back into light sleep. We do this all night long. You do not want to wake up from a deep sleep because you will feel really yucky. We call that sleep inertia.”

Daja Long and Maya Totev contributed to this story.