Science behind Coffee-Naps: Why they are better than coffee or naps alone

Feeling sleepy, and planning to take a quick nap or a cup of coffee to restore your alertness? I think science has a better solution for your midday drowsiness; a coffee-nap!

If you haven’t heard of about it, a coffee nap (a.k.a stimulant nap) is a fairly old concept that has gained some scientific attention recently. It is simply a 20-minute nap after drinking a cup of coffee (or any other caffeinated beverage/supplement.) Now it is proved to be better at restoring your alertness and re-energising you as compared to the traditional 30-minute nap, or a cup of coffee.

It may sound unconventional and even counter-intuitive, that something like caffeine which is supposed to earn us a few sleepless hours, when taken before a 20-minute nap, works better. But it’s actually just simple logic once you understand the science that lies behind it.

Sleep 101

Before getting into how caffeine-naps work, you should first have an idea of how our sleep-system works.

Well, all the blame of you feeling sleepy goes to a neurotransmitter called “adenosine”. Adenosine is the cause of you feeling drowsy and tired. It is created by our body when we are awake, as a by-product of using our internal energy stores. In other words you use…