Love to nap? We should be having one daily - and for this long

We're happy with that

Words by Jadie Troy-Pryde

Hands up if you love a good nap? Same. During our uni days, napping was an essential part of life. Cosied up on your bed with a pile of books you don't understand? Have a nap. Bored because everyone is out and Tinder isn't a thing yet? Have a nap. Feeling hungover and rotten because you won't buy wine that's more than £3? Have a bloody good nap.

But with that swift move from student life to real life, naps got lost along the way, which is pretty sad. Now work, relationships, families, ASOS - they're all getting in the way of a good helping of old fashioned shut-eye.

However, if you're longing for those days of freely sleeping whenever you liked, we've got some brilliant news. We should actually be having a nap every day (yes, really).

A recent study in the Journal of Sleep Research showed that when we take short naps, our cognitive alertness and mental capacity is greatly improved. According to researchers at Clinical Neurophysiology, a 20-minute nap could be the key to a productive afternoon, and if you opt for an hour of rest it'll increase and improve your brain function. Sounds pretty good to us.

Of course, not everyone has time to take an hour snooze in the middle of the day. Unless you work at Google and can bag yourself a little sleep pod, we doubt your boss is going to be happy with you plonking your head on your desk for 60 minutes every afternoon.

But further research from The Archives of Internal Medicine found that the optimum nap time was 30 minutes. Of those who participated in the study, the people who had a half-hour nap three times a week had a more than 30% lowered risk of death via coronary episodes - particularly in women.

You'll find us on the nearest sofa at lunchtime...