Midday Naps: Beneficial or Detrimental?

Quote by Mysteria27
I often take naps....

Sometimes I really have no choice.

I am a night owl and stay up much to late so eventually I crash and need to catch up..

Quote by Mysteria27
I often take naps....

Sometimes I really have no choice.

I am a night owl and stay up much to late so eventually I crash and need to catch up..

xo

Quote by LaylaJune
It has never even occurred to me to nap, unless I am sick, or jet-lagged.

Quote by SereneProdigy
Hello there,

I lift weights in the evening most days of the week and because of that, I often have difficulty falling asleep as my adrenaline levels are still high when I go to bed. Since a few months, I've been taking more and more short naps of 30-60 minutes when I get back from work, just before training. I had difficulty falling asleep before, mostly due to my training, so these naps just inadvertently established themselves in my routine and it seems like I'm now trapped in some kind of vicious circle as I don't feel tired until late in the evening.

I usually go to bed at around midnight, then wake up at 7:00 am, which gives me only 7 hours of sleep instead of my preferred 8-9 hours. If I took a nap in the evening the day before however, I don't notice much difference in terms of fatigue/alertness, though that will also likely make me want to nap again when I return home.

The thing is, I actually don't feel more tired during the day and I find these naps to be quite convenient. I always had some difficulty falling asleep (again, mostly due to my training), so now I just return home, take a short nap, train, eat, and go to sleep. Where this is advantageous for me is that I usually fall asleep rather quickly with this regimen, instead of looking at the ceiling for 1-2 hour(s) as I did before. Plus, I get to rest a little before training, which makes me more focused during my session.

Overall, I find these naps to be quite convenient and I usually feel great during the day, but I've been wondering if these naps could be detrimental in the long run. I once read that naps are advantageous to get some quick quality sleep; for example, taking a short nap of 30 minutes could be just as rejuvenating as adding 1 hour of sleep during the night. But taking naps can also make it more difficult to fall asleep later in the evening, though as I've said, I suffered from insomnia before anyway and it's not really 'worse' since I've started taking those naps.

Any advices to share? Thanks!