Wrapping up this three post series on napping with a discussion of the nappuccino. The first time I heard the portmanteau “nappuccino” was not from a sleep expert but from an entrepreneur @danielpink. BTW check out his @MasterClass it is awesome.
The idea behind the nappuccino is to ingest a dose of caffeine right before taking a power nap timed in the afternoon dip in the circadian alerting signal. The caffeine will just be rising in the bloodstream as the 10-20 minute nap ends, producing a boost in cognition. This should also help those of us who struggle to end the nap after 10-20 minutes.
If you’ve read my earlier posts, you’ll know that caffeine peaks about one hour after ingestion so keeping the nap short is key.
Most people will experience a dip in alertness around 7-8 hours after the time they wake up for the day. For example, if you wake up at 6 am, the nappuccino should begin around 1-2 pm. Napping at this time of day has the added benefit of not shifting the circadian phase of the sleep wake cycle which is one of the reasons sleep doctors usually don’t recommend naps.
I also want to clarify the duration of naps which caused confusion in my last post. When I say a 10 minute nap, I am not including the time it took you to fall asleep, only the time you are napping. So you might need 20 minutes to achieve a 10 minute nap. Got it?
I wouldn’t recommend this as a daily strategy. If you need to do something like this every day it is a sign you are sleep deprived and the best strategy would be to figure out how to get more sleep. But let’s say you didn’t sleep well last night because your child was sick and today you have to give a presentation at work in the afternoon, a nappuccino is a great way to augment the benefits of caffeine and a short nap for performance.
Are you a fan of the nappuccino?