How to Wake Up After a Nap (and Shake the Grogginess Fast)

Most people searching how to wake up after a nap have just been through it. They lay down for twenty minutes, opened their eyes at minute fifty, and now feel heavier than before they closed them. The head is thick, the legs are slow, and the next thing on the calendar starts soon. That heavy stretch has a name, sleep inertia, and the research on it is specific about what to do.

Why you feel worse after a nap than before it

Sleep inertia is the groggy, slowed-down period right after waking. The Sleep Foundation puts it at 15 to 60 minutes for most people, and it can run longer. One leading explanation involves deep sleep. If the alarm goes off while your brain is still producing delta waves (the slow waves of deep, non-REM sleep), you wake up in the middle of that state and it takes a while to clear.

Nap length decides how likely that is. The longer you stay down, the further you drift toward deep sleep and the harder the climb back out. Timing plays a part too. In a driving simulator study by Reyner and Horne, sleepiness and driving incidents peaked in mid-afternoon, the same window most of us pick for a nap.

How to wake up after a nap without the fog

Keep it to 10 to 20 minutes

The clearest study on nap length is Brooks and Lack, published in the journal Sleep in 2006. They cut 24 young adults' night sleep to about five hours, then gave them a 3 p.m. nap of 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes, or no nap at all. The 10-minute nap produced immediate improvements on every measure, and some lasted 155 minutes. The 20-minute nap took about 35 minutes to show its gains. After 30 minutes, people were slower and groggier for a stretch before they improved. Five minutes did little.

NASA got a similar answer in the cockpit. In its 1995 study of long-haul pilots, crews given a 40-minute rest window slept about 26 minutes and showed up to 34% better performance and 54% better alertness than pilots who didn't nap. That figure is where the "NASA nap" of 26 minutes comes from.

Set the alarm before you lie down. If you take five minutes to drift off, a 20-minute alarm gives you about 15 minutes of sleep. Put the phone across the room so switching it off means standing up.

Get bright light in the first minute

Hayashi, Masuda and Hori (2003, Clinical Neurophysiology) tested ways to wake 10 young adults after a 20-minute lunchtime nap. One minute of bright light at 2,000 lux, straight after waking, cut sleepiness about as well as caffeine did, though it did less for performance scores. A 2016 review of wake-up methods by Hilditch, Dorrian and Banks reached a similar view, reporting "promising results" for light and temperature on how alert people felt. Open the blinds all the way or step outside for a few minutes.

Splash cold water on your face

The same Hayashi study tried face washing straight after the nap. Sleepiness dropped right away, but the effect was mild and faded sooner than light or caffeine. Use it as the first move and stack something else on top.

Have the coffee before the nap

The "coffee nap" sounds backwards and has the strongest numbers. In Reyner and Horne's 1997 study, 12 sleepy drivers took 200 mg of caffeine, napped for under 15 minutes, then drove a monotonous two-hour afternoon route in a simulator. Caffeine on its own cut driving incidents to 34% of the placebo level. Caffeine plus the short nap cut them to 9%. In the Hayashi study, caffeine taken before the nap beat every other method and its effect held for the full hour of testing. The Sleep Foundation suggests a nap of about 20 minutes, which gives the caffeine time to kick in. Drink it quickly and lie down straight away.

Get vertical and move

The last part of how to wake up from a nap is the plainest. Get up the moment the alarm rings and walk somewhere with a purpose, to the window for light or to the sink for the water. Staying horizontal with your phone is how a 20-minute nap becomes a 50-minute one.

One spray of Dragon Breath and you're back

Light and cold water need a window and a sink. Coffee needs planning 20 minutes ahead. Plenty of naps are messier than that. You wake up late in the passenger seat or on the office couch, and the next thing has already started. For those, the fastest way to wake yourself up after a nap is something you can do in two seconds without getting up, and that is why we carry Dragon Breath, our chilcuague mouth spray.

One spray onto the tongue. Within about 10 seconds a bright electric buzz spreads across the tongue and mouth, then your mouth floods. It is very hard to stay half asleep through it. You come out the other side switched on for what's next, whether that's the afternoon meeting or the drive home. A customer filmed in a reaction video said "Definitely energized." moments after one spray.

The taste is earthy and a little peppery for a second, then the tingle takes over. The buzz comes from affinin (also called spilanthol), which chilcuague root carries at 6.9 to 8.5 mg per gram. Start with one spray, and once you know the feeling you can go up to five. A clean, fresh feeling lingers afterwards, which is welcome if you napped with your mouth open.

The bottle is 50 ml, sits in a pocket and holds 250+ sprays, so it goes wherever you nap. A few sprays is all it takes, and the extract stays sealed in Miron violet glass, away from air and light, which loose root or powder can't offer. Chilcuague (Heliopsis longipes), also called golden root, is wild-harvested in Central Mexico from growth zones the Mara team selects with the help of local elders, then dual-extracted in organic solutions. Our guide to chilcuague covers the plant and how Mexican families have used it.

If the heavy feeling arrives after lunch even when you haven't napped, read our post on beating the afternoon slump.

Dragon Breath – Chilcuague Extract

50 ml mouth spray. Wild-harvested chilcuague root, dual-extracted. 250+ sprays.

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Dragon Breath considerations

Recommendation: If you're pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or allergic to plants in the daisy family, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask

How do you get rid of grogginess after a nap?

Get bright light and cold water on your face in the first minute or two, then move. In a 2003 study, one minute of 2,000 lux light after a 20-minute nap cut sleepiness about as well as caffeine. One spray of Dragon Breath gives you a loud buzz to wake into wherever you are.

How long should a nap be so you don't wake up groggy?

Ten to 20 minutes. In Brooks and Lack's 2006 study, a 10-minute nap gave immediate gains, while people woke from a 30-minute nap slower and groggier first.

How do you wake up from a power nap?

Set the alarm before you lie down, keep the phone out of reach and get up the moment it rings. Have a coffee just before the nap if you want the caffeine arriving as you wake.

Why do I feel worse after a nap?

That's sleep inertia. It is most likely when you wake from deep sleep, which longer naps reach, and the Sleep Foundation says it usually lasts 15 to 60 minutes.