Are Afternoon Naps Good for Your Brain? Study Offers Clues

• A recent study suggests that even a short afternoon nap may help your brain recover and improve learning ability.
• The researchers note that sleep can help regulate excessive brain activity.
• While afternoon naps may offer benefits, there are potential negative effects to consider, such as disrupted nighttime sleep and cardiovascular issues.

Your brain is constantly active during the day. New impressions, thoughts, and information are all being processed. This helps to strengthen the connection between nerve cells or synapses.

A small new study published in NeuroImage suggested that even a short afternoon nap can help your brain recover and improve your ability to learn.

“The study was well designed, and I like it because it helps reinforce the concept that sleep is not just a passive activity where the brain is ‘resting’,” said Vernon Williams, MD, sports neurologist and founding director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.

“Sleep (even brief naps) does more than simply reduce fatigue. There is a measurable effect on brain physiology,” Williams told Healthline.

The findings show that a nap may be enough to reorganize connections between nerve cells, allowing your brain to store new information more efficiently. Up until now, this was something that was thought to only occur after a full night’s sleep.

This new study found that short sleep periods can relieve your brain and return it to a state of readiness to learn. This process may be particularly beneficial for those with a high workload.

“Our results suggest that even short periods of sleep enhance the brain’s capacity to encode new information,” Christoph Nissen, professor and chief physician at the Department of Psychiatry, University and University Hospital of Geneva (HUG), Switzerland, and member of the research team, said in a press release.

The strengthened synaptic connections that come from the brain’s activity during the day are an important neural basis for the learning process.

However, the researchers note that they can also lead to saturation. This can decrease the brain’s ability to learn over time.

Sleep can help to regulate this excessive activity without losing important information.

“The study shows that this ‘synaptic reset’ can happen with just an afternoon nap, clearing space for new memories to form,” Nissen said in a press release.

The study observed 20 healthy adults, with an average age of 25, who either napped or stayed awake on two afternoons. For those who took a nap, it lasted an average of 45 minutes.

Direct measurements of synapses in healthy humans are not possible. Instead, the research team used established, noninvasive methods, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and EEG, to draw conclusions about the strength and flexibility of synapses.

The results of the testing showed that after a nap, synaptic strength in the brain decreased.

This is a sign of restorative sleep. At the same time, the results showed that the brain’s ability to form new connections was significantly improved. This means the brain was better prepared to learn new content than after an equally long period of wakefulness.

“That said, it’s important not to overstate it. This study looked at physiological markers of brain excitability and plasticity in 20 healthy young adults — it didn’t directly test whether people learned facts faster, remembered more, or performed better at work or school,” said Dung Trinh, MD, internist, of MemorialCare Medical Group in Irvine, CA, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“This is a ‘brain-readiness’ study, not a productivity guarantee. The findings are meaningful scientifically, but they don’t automatically translate into ‘everyone should nap to learn better,’” he told Healthline.

A 2023 study from Spain, a country where afternoon naps (siestas) are common, analyzed data from more than 3,200 adults.

The results showed that among regular nappers, those who napped for 30 minutes or less had a 21% lower risk of having elevated blood pressure than non-nappers.

Other benefits of an afternoon nap include:

• improved memory
• increased alertness
• improved ability to handle frustrations
• improved inspiration and creative mindset

“Short afternoon naps, or ‘power naps,’ can significantly enhance alertness, mood, and reaction time. They serve as an effective tool for overcoming the mid-afternoon circadian dip,” said Alex Dimitriu, MD, double board certified psychiatry and sleep medicine specialist and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

While short afternoon naps may be beneficial, there are certain cons of regular napping that you may want to consider.

The Spanish study also noted that those who napped for more than 30 minutes were likely to have higher body weight.

A meta-analysis from 2024 also found that those who nap for 30 minutes or longer were at a higher risk of various adverse health outcomes, such as:

This shows that naps can be beneficial, but it may be better to keep them to 30 minutes or less.

“Consistency is key, and while naps are beneficial for many, they should supplement, not replace, a healthy nighttime sleep schedule of at least 7 [hours] per night,” Dimitriu told Healthline.