How to nap in hot weather: length, timing and a cool room

In a hot place the middle of the afternoon is the hardest part of the day. The sun is overhead, the streets are quiet and your eyes are heavy. A nap is the traditional answer in many warm countries, and it can work well. It can also go wrong: you wake up groggy, still hot, and wide awake at midnight.

This guide uses Mayo Clinic’s nap advice and the NHS’s advice for hot weather to build a nap that helps rather than costs you your night.

What a nap can do, and what it costs

Mayo Clinic lists the benefits of napping for healthy adults as relaxation, less tiredness, more alertness, a better mood and improved performance, including quicker reaction time and better memory. It also lists the drawbacks. Napping can leave you groggy right after waking, an effect it calls sleep inertia that often goes away within about 35 minutes. It can cause trouble sleeping at night: for most people, short naps do not tend to affect sleep quality overnight, but if you already struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep, napping might make that worse, and long or frequent naps might interfere with night-time sleep. Mayo Clinic adds that some research links naps longer than an hour a day with higher risks of conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

The three rules for a good nap

Mayo Clinic’s tips come down to three things.

Make the room cool before you lie down

The NHS advice for hot spells is to keep your living space cool: close windows, curtains and blinds during the day, and open them at night when the temperature outside has gone down. Electric fans can help if the temperature is below 35 degrees. For a nap, that points to a few small steps:

1. Close the curtains in the room you will nap in before the heat builds, so you are not trying to cool a room that is already baking.
2. Switch the fan on and point it at the bed rather than at your face.
3. Use a single thin sheet or a light cover instead of a duvet, and loose clothes.
4. Put the phone out of reach and set one alarm for 20 to 30 minutes.

If your bedroom is stuffy, our guides to cooling a bedroom without air conditioning and the right room temperature for deeper sleep go further, and sleeping in humid weather covers rooms where the air is damp as well as warm.

Cool yourself, not just the room

The NHS advises having cold food and regular cold drinks, drinking extra fluids while avoiding alcohol, caffeine and hot drinks, and having a cool shower or putting cool water on your skin or clothes. Before a nap, that could be a cool wash of the face, wrists and neck, and a glass of water. Avoid a large meal or a coffee just beforehand if you want to fall asleep fast; the NHS list is about keeping cool, and the timing tip is ours.

Getting home without arriving overheated

If you walk to your nap, the NHS says that if you have to go outside in the heat you should stay in the shade, especially between 11am and 3pm, wear sunscreen, a hat and light clothes, and avoid activity that makes you hotter. Arriving at the bedroom already hot makes the cooling harder, so cool the walk too: take the shaded side of the street and move slowly. Calm Eden’s guide to whether umbrellas block heat looks at carrying shade for the trip. Both sites have the same owner, so that guide comes from the same family, not from a neutral source.

Wake up properly

Mayo Clinic says to give yourself time to wake up after a nap before getting back to your activities, and that this is key if you need to do a task that requires a quick or sharp response. In practice: drink some water, open the curtains to let daylight in, and take a few minutes before you drive or make a decision. If the grogginess lasts well beyond half an hour, the nap was probably too long or too late.

When naps are not the answer

Mayo Clinic says to talk with your healthcare professional if you feel the need to nap more than usual, and that this is extra important if you feel sleepy or tired after you wake up in the morning. The cause might be a medicine, a sleep disorder or another health condition. In hot weather, also take heat illness seriously: the NHS says that if you or someone else feels unwell with a high temperature during hot weather, it may be heat exhaustion or heatstroke, and to get help. Those at higher risk include older adults, babies and young children, and people with some long-term conditions.

A hot-weather nap in six steps

1. Pick the early afternoon, ideally before 3 p.m.
2. Close the curtains and switch on a fan before you lie down.
3. Have a cool drink of water and cool your skin.
4. Use a light cover, loose clothing and a dark, quiet room.
5. Set an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Take a few minutes to wake up, then get some daylight.

This guide is general information, not medical advice. If you are unwell, pregnant, on medicines that affect how you cope with heat, or caring for a baby or an older person, follow the advice of your doctor or pharmacist.