When is National Napping Day 2018? It’s supposed to help you adjust to Daylight Savings Time
No one likes feeling sleep-deprived. But every year without fail, most of us have to set our clocks forward one hour for Daylight Savings Time. Which means we effectively lose an hour of sleep. Needless to say, a lot of people are going to be tired over the next few days. Luckily, there’s a special holiday designed to help you get back on track, sleep-wise. National Napping Day 2018 is on Monday, March 12th, and it encourages everyone to catch up on lost sleep with a quick daytime snooze.
Boston University professor William Anthony, Ph.D., and his wife, Camille Anthony, created National Napping Day in 1999 to help promote sleep health. They saw it as an opportunity to talk about the benefits of getting a quality night’s sleep. In fact, the Anthonys have published two books about napping to help share their wisdom with the world. And if you ask us, they’re geniuses:
"I was once told by a policeman that I could not nap in a public place," The Art of Napping reads. "Most Nap Police are not in uniform, but they are everywhere, masquerading as civilians, doing what they think is their civic duty: waking nappers, making them ashamed of napping, and all without the least understanding of nap etiquette."
Preach it, doc!
It’s really no secret why National Napping Day 2018 is the day after Daylight Savings Time.
"We chose this particular Monday because Americans are more 'nap-ready' than usual after losing an hour of sleep to Daylight Saving Time," the Anthonys said back in 2005.
We couldn’t agree more.
According to sleep expert Tina Waters, M.D., it can take the body a week or more to adjust after we push our clocks forward an hour. In the meantime, falling asleep and waking up on time can be super difficult.
“The behavioral changes are where most of the problems are,” Dr. Waters says. “It’s just an hour, but it’s asking already chronically sleep deprived people to wake up an hour ahead.”
So, how can National Napping Day 2018 help you cope with losing an hour of sleep?
A short nap of roughly 20 to 30 minutes on Monday can help improve your mood, performance, and alertness, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Any longer can leave you feeling groggy or make it harder for you to fall asleep at night. And if you can’t sneak away for some quick shuteye, keeping your regular sleep routine as normal as possible will make it easier to adjust to the time change, too.
There’s really never a bad time to take a nap. But there’s no shame in using Daylight Savings Time as an excuse, either. Happing sleeping, everyone!
