National Napping Day 2022

National napping day is probably our favorite, unofficial holiday in the US. The day - as the name suggests - is dedicated to making time for a rejuvenating nap, preferably at work. 

The purpose of National Napping Day is to mitigate the effects of Daylight Savings Time and improve the general sleep health of the population, which appears to have been steadily declining over the past years. Join the celebration by taking a cat nap!

What’s it about?

drowsy driver

National Take a Nap Day was invented to help people cope better with the switch from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time. 

The yearly switch causes many Americans to become sleep deprived or suffer from sleep inertia which can be dangerous. For example, the rate of fatal automobile accidents goes up dramatically the day after we move our clocks. 

There is also a remarkable increase in strokes in the days following the switch. Getting adequate sleep is important for keeping our bodies healthy and increasing our chance of avoiding cardiovascular disease, such as strokes or heart attacks. 

These are some of the reasons why it makes perfect sense to celebrate National Napping Day. 

When is National Napping Day 2022?

This year, National napping day fell on March 14th. In 2023, the date for National Napping Day will be March 13th.

This holiday always falls the day directly after the switch to Daylight Savings Time – this makes it easy to remember when is national napping day!

How to celebrate

Since National Nap Day always falls on a Monday, many of us will be at work. We suggest a daytime nap to stave off the effects of the switch to Daylight Savings Time. 

You can also celebrate by making sure you have the recommended amount of sleep at night. For adults, the recommendation is 7-9 hours. 

Finally, update your knowledge on sleep health and sleep hygiene. For instance, how about reading this power nap guide or taking a look at these tips on how to fall asleep right now?

History

William Anthony, the founder of Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University

National Take a Nap Day was invented by William Anthony, a psychologist from Boston University, and his wife Camille in 1999:

“We figured this would be a good day to celebrate the importance of napping because everyone is one hour more sleep-deprived than usual,” Anthony said in a 2006 BU Today article. 

“The fact is that the majority of Americans are sleep-deprived even without Daylight Saving Time.”

William Anthony was the founder of the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. It was from his extensive research on psychological disorders that he had gathered the knowledge about the benefits of napping which eventually led to National Take a Nap Day.

No wonder the holiday quickly caught on; National Napping Day has been observed in the US every year since 1999.

Benefits of napping

Napping should not be seen as a sign of procrastination. Rather, it should be viewed as time invested in one’s health and productivity. All humans have a natural propensity to nap around midday, and by attending to that need, multiple benefits are achieved. These include:

  • Higher creativity
  • Improved cognition
  • Higher alertness
  • Reduced risk of coronary heart disease
  • Reduced stress
  • Less risk of burnout

You can read more about the benefits of napping here, where we also link to scientific documentation for each benefit.

Keep in mind that the above-mentioned benefits come from taking short naps (ideally 20-minutes) regularly.

We challenge you to take a nap on this National Napping Day and make it the beginning of a new, healthy habit!