Scientists working at the University of Hertfordshire – and probably what you’ve been suspecting all along. They have found out that those who take naps enter a contented state – dubbed ‘nappiness’.
Professor Richard Wiseman said: "Previous research has shown that naps of under 30 minutes make you more focused, productive and creative, and these new findings suggest the tantalising possibility that you can also become happier by just taking a short nap. Similarly, longer napping is associated with several health risks and, again, this is in line with our results."
Researchers and 1000 people took part for the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
The happiness scores were obtained from answers to psychological questions in an online survey which also asked for details of napping habits.
And the findings showed evidence of a significant association between short naps and happiness.
Those short nappers who dozed for less than 30 minutes at a time were more likely to be happy than either ‘long nappers’ or ‘no nappers’.
And two thirds of short nappers reported feeling happy compared with between 56% and 60% of long nappers those who never napped.
Short nappers had an average happiness score of 3.67 on a five-point scale, no-nappers 3.52 and long-nappers 3.44.
Clearly Millenials have the right idea. Almost 15% more of younger participants took naps than those over 50.
Only 11% said they were allowed to take naps at work.
Wiseman said: ‘A large body of research shows that short naps boost performance. Many highly successful companies, such as Ben & Jerry’s and Google, have installed dedicated nap spaces, and employees need to wake up to the upside of napping at work.’
Napping for just 20 to 30 minutes is said to improve creativity, focus and performance.
One study carried out by the American space agency Nasa on sleepy military pilots found that taking a 26-minute nap while the co-pilot was in control boosted alertness by more than 50%.
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