Some anecdotal evidence regarding daytime napping and brain health: last week, directly after lunch, I turned on the television to check the cricket before returning to work. When I woke up on the sofa 15 minutes later, the crossword puzzle in my lap was complete.
These findings are a little hard to quantify, because I slept through them. Perhaps I completed the puzzle just before I conked out. It’s possible, I suppose, that a mischievous person stole the crossword from my lap, filled it in and put it back. Of course I prefer the idea that I finished the crossword myself, while unconscious, because it reinforces my assertion that I’m getting things done even when my eyes are closed.
This week saw the publication – in the journal Sleep Health – of a study that found a “modest causal association between habitual daytime napping and larger total brain volumes”. The study didn’t uncover any specific cognitive benefits, but other studies have. Short naps of between five and 15 minutes can result in an almost immediate boost of cognitive function. Longer naps produce a subsequent period of temporary impairment – drowsiness, basically – but can thereafter improve cognitive function for many hours.
Like most people, I draw comfort from any study that purports to show real benefit resulting from something I can’t help doing anyway. For some years I’ve been in the habit of taking a brief nap every day at around the 2pm mark. This is in no way planned or voluntary: I nod out wherever I am, with very little warning. Drool may or may not be involved. I usually wake within 15 minutes or so, feeling refreshed, bewildered and, depending on how I was sitting when I dropped off, maybe a little stiff-necked.
It’s easy for me to indulge this habit, because I work from home and have done for 20 years. I don’t have to face the indignity of falling asleep in an open-plan office, although I don’t think indignity would be any kind of deterrent now. But given the demonstrable cognitive benefits of a brief snooze – and the fact that daytime nappers are, to some extent, genetically predisposed to do so – we should perhaps be thinking again about devoting a little floor space to the practice.
Before the pandemic it seemed there was a trend toward workplace napping – Google and other tech companies installed sleep rooms and sleep “pods” in their offices. Co-working office-space chains offered nap areas as part of the package. In cities across Europe “pod hotels” sprang up, offering workers on the move a place to recharge. I tried one in central London five years ago – an £18-an-hour nap room. Perversely I had trouble dropping off in the strange, hyper-calm environment, although I slept like a baby on the bus home.
Since the pandemic the naptime trend has slowed. When Google first let its workers back in after lockdown, the sleep pods were off-limits. And the looming threat of recession isn’t exactly conducive to arguments in favour of letting employees rest more. Nowadays stories about sleeping at work seem to involve punishment. Last year Elon Musk put bedrooms in Twitter’s offices – not so workers could nap in the day, but so they could stay all night.
The news about daily siestas isn’t all good. A recent study of 3,000 people from the Spanish region of Murcia associated daytime naps of 30 minutes or more with higher rates of obesity. The real truth is that most of us are getting less sleep than ever – any rise in daytime napping may be a direct symptom of that.
The pandemic left one big mark on employment culture – a lot of us now work from home for at least part of the week. As I know well, it’s easy to fall into the nap habit when no one is looking. And as I know better, the nap habit, once acquired, is difficult to shake, no matter who is looking. I’ll be with you in 15 minutes, and don’t touch my crossword puzzle.
Tim Dowling is a regular Guardian contributor
