Reboot Your Brain with a Caffeine Nap

By Gina Trapani on October 3, 2007 at 12:00 AM

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Didn’t get enough sleep last night? Grab a quick midday nap just after a cup of coffee. From Wired’s How To wiki:

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.


1. Right before you crash, down a cup of java. The caffeine has to travel through your gastro-intestinal tract, giving you time to nap before it kicks in.

2. Close your eyes and relax. Even if you only doze, you’ll get what’s known as effective microsleep, or momentary lapses of wakefulness.

3. Limit your nap to 15 minutes. A half hour can lead to sleep inertia, or the spinning down of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which handles functions like judgment. This grey matter can take 30 minutes to reboot.

How do you get through the day when you just haven’t gotten enough sleep? Let us know in the comments. Update: Sorry for the duplicate caffeine nap coverage, all.

Cheat on the Need to Sleep [Wired How To Wiki]
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