Nap Timer

The times start when you press Start, so allow five to fifteen minutes for falling asleep. If you are a slow sleeper, start the 20-minute timer and accept 10 to 15 minutes of actual sleep, or use the custom field for 25.

Being jolted awake, even from light sleep, produces a spike of stress hormones and makes the first minutes unpleasant. The nap timer's alarm starts quietly and rises over several seconds, which wakes most people just as effectively with less shock. If you sleep deeply, choose the firmer tone in the settings. Keep the tab open and the device unlocked; a phone that locks itself will still play the sound in most browsers, but not all, so test it once with a one-minute nap before relying on it.

The body has a natural dip in alertness in the early afternoon, usually between 13:00 and 15:00, which makes that window the easiest time to fall asleep and the least likely to disturb night-time sleep. Napping after about 16:00 reduces the sleep pressure you need at bedtime; if you must nap late, keep it to ten minutes. A coffee immediately before a 20-minute nap ("coffee nap") works well, because caffeine takes about 20 minutes to take effect and arrives just as you wake.

Our power nap guide covers the research behind these numbers, and the waking-up guide explains sleep cycles in more detail.

For a wake-up at a fixed clock time rather than after a duration, use the alarm clock. To fall asleep to audio that switches itself off, the sleep timer. To mask office or street noise while you nap, the white noise generator. If you find it hard to switch off, a few minutes with the breathing exercise before lying down speeds things up.