My life can be divided into a timeline of my relationship with napping.

It all started with myself as the average three-year-old. Of course, I hated napping, because I just wanted to play all the time.

Then I hit elementary school, and it was more of the same. I still hated napping.

Then middle school hit, and I was way too cool to nap.

Then high school, where I thought only weak people napped. Surely, that was not me.

Enter, college.

I now love naps.

I often wonder what I was thinking, how many beautiful hours of sleep I missed out on because I was to stubborn to realize how powerful a nap can truly be.

It’s no secret that sleep is important. We all know it, some of us ignore it, but we are all aware that there’s something magical that comes after a good night’s sleep.

There is also something wonderful that happens after a good nap. If done correctly, a nap is refreshing and allows you to tackle the rest of the day with a vigor you may not have had pre-nap.

I’ve seen countless diagrams on Pinterest that explain the perfect “nap time.” In my opinion, the perfect “nap time” is as long as you can get. To be fair, maybe anything over three hours is a bit excessive, but if you’ve got the time—why not?

After a hard morning workout there’s nothing like a mid-afternoon nap to give you a boost for the rest of the day. Your body feels better, your mind feels better, and more than likely, you are a much more pleasant person to be around.

Besides making you feel better, naps do have some scientific benefits. They can improve memory function, cognition, and combat fatigue. In short, napping is awesome.

Napping is also so much better for your body than sitting around for 45 minutes and “resting” while watching TV. Your body benefits so much more from true rest, and laying down and really resting, with no distractions for those 45 minutes.

Some people believe that napping is only equated with laziness. This is the farthest thing from the truth.

I nap to maximize my day and make sure everything that I do is done to the fullest, and if that requires a little downtime then what’s the harm in that?

So, next time you’ve got a free 45 minutes do what is best for your body, and what will make you an all around more tolerable person—nap!