A coffee nap is the best restorative sleep, it's a double dose of energy. It's better than coffee, and it's better than a nap, which are the first things we think of when we're plagued by fatigue, lack of energy, and sleepiness. Although common sense tells us that these are mutually exclusive concepts, their combination is the ultimate dose of energy. Check out why.
Coffee nap, the winning invigorating combination of coffee and nap, is twice as effective a dose of energy as coffee and nap alone. How is this possible when it is known that coffee keeps us awake and that we should not drink it before going to bed, because then we will not be able to fall asleep?! The explanation is quite simple. The effects of coffee come with a delay, because caffeine takes quite some time to enter our brain via the bloodstream. This takes somewhere 20 minutes, and this time can be used for a short nap, which doubles the "battery charging speed" (we use the positive effects of coffee and a nap at the same time). Sleep gives us new strength first, when we wake up again, coffee also contributes its dose of energy. Even sleep enhances the effects of caffeine.
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Caffeine works in a way that in the brain chases adenosine, the molecule that causes fatigue. But caffeine alone is never strong enough to handle everyone. And since sleep destroys them naturally, once caffeine enters the brain after a 20-minute nap, it has a much easier job, as it is met with a significantly smaller burst of adenosines. Shorter, that's from A 10- to 20-minute nap, it is enough for the body to rest and fill with energy. In this time, we sink to the first stage of sleep, so waking up is quick, and you feel great afterward. If we prolong the nap, we risk even greater fatigue, because then we wake up already in the middle of a deep sleep. And that well-known feeling appears, when after an afternoon nap we feel even worse than before the rest. That's why: a cup of coffee, 20 minutes of sleep, and you'll wake up feeling reborn!
