I Tried the "Coffee Nap" Productivity Hack and Definitely Didn't Expect This
I never liked taking naps when I was a child. On long road trips, I would sit wide awake while my sister and cousins were asleep, leaning against me or the car window. That all changed after grad school when I landed a full-time job and had to get up at 6 each morning.
There are nights when I can’t stay asleep, knowing I need to be up early. After a poor night of rest, I sometimes find myself sitting at my laptop, desperately fighting to keep my eyes open as my eyelids grow heavy. While I’ve tried different sleep hacks, like eating onions and doing the “alpha bridge” method to improve the quality of my sleep at night, sometimes a nap is the only way to get through a mid-afternoon slump.
As a relatively recent convert to napping, I’m always on the lookout for tips on how to make 20 minutes of sleep actually feel refreshing. During a busy workday it’s frustrating to lie down, only to find myself worrying about emails I’m missing or struggling to fall asleep the whole time.
Enter: the coffee nap, when you drink coffee followed immediately by a short nap to increase alertness and concentration. I first learned about the concept of taking a “coffee nap” while searching around for a way to optimize my naps — I wanted a way to wake up without feeling groggy, and actually get back into the flow of my day more energized.
In researching the concept, this line from a Sleep Foundation article caught my eye: “Caffeine followed by a brief nap has been shown to improve alertness and mental acuity.” Exactly what I was looking for. So, after consulting two sleep experts, I decided to try out a coffee nap to see if it could help me power through my day, even when I’m behind on sleep.
What Is a Coffee Nap?
A coffee nap involves drinking coffee and taking a short 15- to 20-minute nap right after, according to the Sleep Foundation. If you’re looking to try out a coffee nap, here’s how to take one, according to Sleep Foundation and the sleep experts I spoke with — neurologist Dr. Chris Winter and Dr. Shelby Harris, director of sleep health at Sleepopolis.
Prepare a cup of coffee and let it cool enough to drink right away. (Tip: You can also drink iced coffee or another caffeinated beverage.)
Find a comfortable spot that’s free of distractions.
Drink your coffee without too much time passing (aim for 10 minutes or so).
Set a timer for 20 minutes and put your phone on silent. (Tip: Consider putting on relaxing music or white noise to help you sleep.)
Lie down and close your eyes as you try to drift off to sleep.
Get up when the timer goes off.
Drink water and move around to help increase alertness.
A coffee nap can help when you’re sleepy and need to recharge quickly. Because coffee acts as a stimulant, “when you wake up, you get the double boost of a nap plus the caffeine hitting your system,” says Harris. “It doesn’t work as well if you can’t fall asleep quickly, or if the caffeine kicks in too early, making it harder to doze off.”
Likewise, if you nap for too long, you risk losing out on the energizing effects of caffeine. Studies show that caffeine typically takes around 10 to 45 minutes to kick in, so a 20-minute respite should have you waking up right as the coffee is kicking into gear, or about to.
Drinking a cup of coffee right before a nap may “help to eliminate that post-nap funk you feel when you awaken, so you’re ready to tackle whatever tasks await you,” says Winter, who is also Mattress Firm’s sleep health expert. He recommends drinking good-quality coffee and taking naps, especially if you work long shifts or in dangerous conditions. On the other hand, if you have “bad sleep habits or insomnia, a coffee nap might make matters worse because frequent napping can diminish your drive to sleep at night,” he notes.
What Happened When I Took a Coffee Nap
I tried my first coffee nap on a Friday while working from home. I got up at 6:30 a.m. and refrained from drinking any coffee — I ended up skipping morning coffee on all the days I tried a coffee nap just to avoid consuming too much caffeine for my personal tolerance, but that’s not at all a necessary step. Around 2 p.m. I started feeling drowsy, so I made an iced coffee, drank it quickly, and sat upright for a minute to let my stomach settle. Then I set my alarm for 20 minutes, turned out the overhead lights, and stretched out on the couch to sleep. I couldn’t keep track of exactly how long it took, but I dozed off soon after lying down.
When my alarm went off, I was tempted to sleep longer, but decided not to hit snooze. Once I took a bathroom break and had a drink of water, I noticed I’d started feeling much more alert. The rest of the workday flew by. I felt less anxious as emails came in and I even managed to get started on a task I had been avoiding.
On Saturday I pushed my coffee nap to 3 p.m., as I had dinner plans later that night that I wanted to feel energized for. Although I couldn’t fall asleep this time, I found that just closing my eyes and resting made me feel markedly more relaxed. That night after dinner, I noticed I felt a little jittery and had trouble sleeping. I can’t say for sure whether to attribute the subpar sleep to my coffee nap — it might’ve been some combination of having a headache, drinking caffeine later in the afternoon, and being an introvert who dreads small talk.
I repeated the experiment on Sunday, drinking my afternoon coffee around 2:15 p.m. and taking a nap shortly after. I noticed that my sleep was disturbed again that night, so I skipped a couple of days while working in the office. The next time I tried a weekday coffee nap was on Wednesday when I had an early morning appointment and was working from home. I felt sluggish in the afternoon and made a coffee just before 1 p.m. in preparation for a nap. I put the fireplace on and fell asleep when my head hit the pillow. Afterward, I felt more energized and able to focus on my work.
Did the Coffee Nap Work?
The verdict: It’s a mixed bag. Because of its anti-slump powers, I’ll continue using a coffee nap to recharge on days where I’ve slept poorly or have tasks on my to-do list that require deep focus and concentration. My increased energy and alertness on the days I took a coffee nap seemed to last for three or four hours after the rest. However, I didn’t love how taking a coffee nap three days in a row disturbed my sleep at night, so in the future I’d indulge in this hack on the days I really find myself in a post-lunch slump, rather than leaning on it for the majority of the week.
What didn’t work for me was drinking caffeine after 3 p.m. Research shows that the best time to take a coffee nap is sometime after eating lunch, but because caffeine can stay in your system anywhere from two to 12 hours, you’re best off planning ahead from your bedtime and making sure you cut off your caffeine intake several hours before.
For me, too much caffeine can make me feel wired and can give me a stomachache. If you’re similarly sensitive to caffeine, you may want to take the same approach, or try a coffee nap once and pay close attention to how it makes you feel throughout the day — and especially how it affects your ability to fall asleep that night. If you’re interested in incorporating the occasional coffee nap into your afternoon routine, just be mindful of when and how much caffeine you consume to avoid unwanted effects like headaches or anxiety — and keep in mind that while this can be a helpful productivity hack, it’s no substitute for a good night of sleep.
Further Reading
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Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
