How to fight off sleepiness during all-nighters

The split nap hack is proven to help beat morning drowsiness and fatigue.

February 22, 2024

Feature of the week

Pulling another all-nighter? Try the split nap hack

Fighting to stay awake, when everything in your body screams for sleep, is never an easy thing to do—yet, some nights call for extreme measures. Fortunately, a new study from Hiroshima University, Japan, reveals an evidence-based strategy for surviving gruesome all-nighters: by taking two shorter naps instead of one big nap.

Sanae Oriyama, a nursing professor from the Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences and the study author, discovered that dividing a 120-nap time into two separate blocks—90 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively—during an overnight shift prolongs the nap’s restorative benefits.

In both instances, no significant difference in improving cognitive performance was recorded. However, participants who took a single nap experienced drowsiness a lot sooner than those who napped twice throughout the night.

Editorial highlights

HEALTH

Research shows that an afternoon nap of 30 minutes is best but even 10 minutes can help improve attentiveness and mood.

HEALTH

Until now such studies have been limited to Western populations.

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Michael Goh, Chief Operating Officer at IPI encourages startups and SMEs to embrace transformation and work with trusted partners like IPI to spring ahead of the competition.

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