When you’re tired, do you drink coffee or take a nap? Here is a new idea for you: Coffee Naps. While I was researching topics to talk about for this blog, I came across this intriguing title. Coffee and naps are two things every college student loves. Pulled an all-nighter studying for an exam? Coffee. Did your teacher just talk and talk and talk for a whole hour and fifteen minutes? You definitely deserve a nap. I know what you’re thinking. “Coffee restricts quality sleep. Why would we chuck a coffee just to go back to sleep?”
Here’s Why
I’m going to try my best to explain, in words, what happens here. Inside our brains, we have special adenosine receptors. When then adenosine chemicals connect to the receptors, it makes a person feel tired. The molecular shape of adenosine and caffeine are very similar. When caffeine enters the brain, it replaces the adenosine and blocks the binding of adenosine. Therefore, caffeine stops a person from feeling tired. When you nap, the adenosine naturally goes away. However, when you drink coffee, these chemicals need to fight each other. This fighting can cause the coffee to be less effective.
In summary, when you nap, the caffeine naturally replaces the adenosine. By the time you wake up from a quick nap, the caffeine will be in those receptors.
How to Effectively Take a Coffee Nap
First, you need caffeine. It doesn’t matter what kind of coffee it is as long as it is going to give you some sort of energy. In the research I’ve done, they suggest you make yourself something that you tend to drink faster, such as espresso or iced coffee. I opted for the iced coffee because I drink hot coffee way too slow.
The reason why you want to drink it fast is that you don’t want caffeine to be kicking in while you are trying to lie down for your nap. Before you catch some z’s, make sure you set an alarm for 15-20 minutes. The reason for this time frame is because of the amount of time it takes for coffee to go through your system. After 20 minutes, you will wake up feeling refreshed and ready to conquer more of the day.
I generally don’t take naps but when I do, I oftentimes feel more tired when I wake up from it. When it comes to coffee, sometimes the caffeine hits me all at once, making me crash in the middle of the day. From now on, before I take a nap, I’m going to get myself some coffee. I didn’t stay up any later but I did feel more awake until the time I usually go to bed. What do you say? Are you going to have a cup of joe before your next nap?
I really enjoyed looking at your blog this week with the coffee nap. I might try this sometime because I’m very tired throughout the day and maybe this will give me some energy. This is a really cool idea but I don’t work well with coffee so we will see what would happen.
I’ve heard of this and have been interested in trying it, but I think I’m definitely going to now! Thanks!
I’ve never heard of this before. going to have a try to give it a shot considering I love both coffee and my naps. It kind of sounded silly at first but really makes a lot of sense when you think about it. I have been having these really groggy days lately so I have to try this one. Nice blog!