Coffee naps, yeah, it’s a thing and it’s real.
Let’s face it, there’s nothing like combining two things we like into one action and, according to VOX, there’s research that shows coffee naps are both real and good for you. Kinda like Brussels sprouts without the bad taste.
You know that sleep is good for you, there are daily reminders in the news and every health professional–including some not so professional–reminds you. And who doesn’t love a nap? Coffee has a checkered history of benefits and drawbacks, but they mainly come out on the benefit side. (Full disclosure: I don’t drink coffee, it doesn’t agree with my digestive system, but I love that aroma.)
So, How Does This Coffee Nap Thing Work?
Glad you asked. Seems sleep and coffee are connected in an odd way. If you’re like me, then you think caffeine wakes you up, but that’s not quite how caffeine works on our brains. Our brain cells have receptors that are open to many brain chemicals, one of which is adenosine, the sleep chemical. Caffeine fits into the same receptor as adenosine, but only if that receptor is not already filled with an adenosine molecule. Adenosine fills receptors as it builds up during the time you are awake and when enough receptors are full the adenosine makes you sleepy.
It’s like “putting a block of wood under one of the brain’s primary brake pedals.” –Stephen R. Braun Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine
The coffee nap magic is that receptors release their adenosine molecules during sleep and the receptor is empty. After you drink coffee it takes about 20 minutes for the caffeine to move through your digestive system, enter the bloodstream and into your brain. If you drink a cup of coffee and then take a 20-minute nap, the receptors in your brain have time to release adenosine and begin filling the receptors with caffeine.
One Word Of Warning
There’s always a warning. Achilles should protect his heel. Pandora shouldn’t open her box. And you shouldn’t nap longer than 20 minutes, otherwise you’ll slip into a deep sleep mode that leads to “sleep inertia.”
The Vox article goes on to give a recipe for the perfect coffer nap, but the typical Boomermale should have that covered by now.
Credit: Photo by Ember + Ivory on Unsplash
