Many adults sleep too little at night due to anxiety, stress, and the pressures of work and home life. Adequate sleep is essential for good mental and physical health. If you are not getting enough shuteye at night, try starting a nap routine. Napping meditations can help you develop a regular, healthy napping habit.

What is Meditation for Napping?

Meditation for napping is a mindfulness practice that prepares the body and mind for a restful break. Like any other meditation, it helps focus the mind and relax the body. A good napping meditation should help you focus on your breathing and relieve stress from the body to help you fall asleep.

A nap meditation may have a particular focus, such as relaxation or stress-management, but all good meditations follow the same pattern: they should guide you to take deep, lung-filling breaths and pay attention to your body’s reaction to each breath.

Benefits of Napping Meditation

Napping is not just for kids. It has proven to be beneficial for people of all ages and is a healthy habit if you do it right, especially if you do not get enough sleep at night. Some of the proven benefits of napping include:

• Improved alertness
• Reduced fatigue
• Improved attitude and mood
• Improved memory
• Increased creativity
• Improved task performance

Meditation and napping work well together: the meditation relaxes you and helps you fall asleep, and then you can reap the benefits of your nap. If you could use some extra z’s but struggle to sleep during the day, try a napping meditation.

How to Power Nap

Most adults do not find napping as easy or inevitable as young children do. While youngsters naturally get sleepy and drift off midday, adults have been conditioned to power through the afternoon lull with coffee or sugar. Learning to nap again takes time and regular practice. Use the routine below as a guide for your next daytime nap:

1. Choose a napping location. Your bed, where you sleep at night, is not the ideal spot to nap because you associate it with a full night’s sleep. Instead, choose a comfortable place that is quiet enough to dedicate a quick nap to.

2. Nap between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm. A nap in the middle of the day is ideal, so aim for this window. Any later than this, and it may interfere with your nighttime sleep.

3. Nap when you have 90 minutes to spare. One full sleep cycle lasts between 45 and 90 minutes. Anything shorter will interrupt this natural rhythm and could leave you feeling drained instead of refreshed.

4. Be consistent with your naps. Try to nap at the same time every day and in the same location to create a healthy, sustainable habit.

5. Start a BetterSleep napping meditation. Once you have found your ideal napping spot, start one of BetterSleep’ several meditations designed for napping. Set an alarm for 90 minutes and dive into a meditation that will guide you into a restful afternoon sleep.

Set the tone for a great nap by choosing a meditation that best suits the reason for your afternoon rest. Whether you need to relax, reenergize, or relieve stress, the right meditation will help you fall asleep and enjoy all the benefits of a daily nap.