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Benefits of napping in healthy adults: impact of nap length, time of day, age, and experience with napping
Author(s) -
MILNER CATHERINE E.,
COTE KIMBERLY A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00718.x
Subject(s) - nap , alertness , affect (linguistics) , psychology , gerontology , sleep (system call) , duration (music) , medicine , audiology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , computer science , social psychology , art , literature , communication , operating system
Summary Napping is a cross‐cultural phenomenon which occurs across the lifespan. People vary widely in the frequency with which they nap as well as the improvements in alertness and well‐being experienced. The systematic study of daytime napping is important to understand the benefits in alertness and performance that may be accrued from napping. This review paper investigates factors that affect the benefits of napping such as duration and temporal placement of the nap. In addition, the influence of subject characteristics such as age and experience with napping is examined. The focus of the review is on benefits for healthy individuals with regular sleep/wake schedules rather than for people with sleep or medical disorders. The goal of the review is to summarize the type of performance improvements that result from napping, critique the existing studies, and make recommendations for future research.