to nap or not to nap

You've heard that it can be detrimental to nighttime slumber, perpetuating insomnia—but then again, it feels so good and can recharge you for the rest of your day. As the debate rages, here's how to decide whether taking a little midday snooze is right for you.

- ALYSSA JUNG

It's officially food coma season, and there is a nonzero chance that one of the people you share the holiday with will poke the napper on the couch and claim that they should power through the rest of the day. Why? Because napping is a destroyer of nighttime sleep, leading to health problems connected with not getting enough shuteye including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and many other issues. Also, daytime napping itself, some studies have suggested, could be associated with problems like high blood pressure, though the science isn't conclusive—these studies had limitations involving comorbidities and often unreliable data.

Napping in fact has proven benefits, as research points to a connection between taking naps and having better overall brain health whether or not one gets adequate sleep at night—and this holds true for both those who nap regularly and those who do so more sporadically. “The same types of cognitive benefits you see with a full night of sleep, you see with a nap,” says Sara Mednick, Ph.D., a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems. “People show better verbal, spatial, and working memory; better creativity; better perception; and better attentional processing after a nap.”

So what's a tired person (who is maybe also full of turkey) to do? Here's the 411 on napping, as well as how to make it work for you.

THE SCIENCE OF DAY DOZING