Power nap vs Espresso – What is the most effective weapon to tackle the afternoon slump?
We’ve all been there, good and hyper in the morning, productivity through the roof, dealing with Karens and Brians without bursting into rage fits, quick lunch and then … hitting a wall, afternoon slump central.
There are cultures with dedicated siesta time to deal with this very issue, there are cultures who choose to substitute the nap time with a shot of espresso and get over the slump with a caffeine boost instead. So what is the most effective way to deal?
Surely, being a coffee company, you’d expect us to say the espresso way is the way to go.
Throat Punch Coffee beat the shit out of the afternoon slump would be a catchy title for the blog. But, it turns out, the most effective way is to combine the two! #mindblown
It might sound bonkers, to nap after an espresso but the reality is, it takes the caffeine a second to kick in, and it turns out, if you take this break for a quick shut eye, the effects of both coping methods combined are the way to go. You’ll wake up refreshed by your power nap right at the time when the caffeine in your bloodstream hits its peak. Win. And it’s not just us talking out of our arse, we have science to back us up.
Studies by folk smarter than us have been conducted since the nineties, comparing caffeine vs napping and the combo of the two against just one of the methods. They looked at alertness in drivers, performance tests in nightshift workers,
Several studies throughout the 1990s compared how well people performed after a caffeine nap versus taking caffeine or a nap alone. In one study, some participants were instructed to take 200 milligrams of caffeine and then take a nap before being kept awake for a period of 24 hours. Compared to participants who took only a nap, those who had a caffeine nap were better at maintaining alertness, logical reasoning, and performance tests in nightshift workers, and even physical performance in athletes. The results of the studies were consistent, caffeine followed by a short nap is the most effective way.
The tricks to ensure this works are:
- you want to take in about 200 miligrams of caffeine, which is usually the equivalent of a double shot espresso
- you want to drink your coffee quite quickle and take the short nap immediately after
- make sure not to snooze too long, anything above 25 minutes will diminish the results of your master plan
Disclosure, this method is only applicable if coffee doesn’t give you issues in general - in terms of high pressure, anxiety or any other delights you might be dealing with. But seeing that you landed on our page, this hopefully and probably isn’t the case.
So let us know? Would you cut your lunch hour short to squeeze in an espresso nap?