9 Science Approved Life Hacks To Make Everything Better

2. Boost Your Nap With Coffee

You may well have heard of the coffee nap phenomenon by now, but do you know why it works? Okay, firstly, for those who haven't heard of a coffee nap, the concept is simple: You drink a cup of good coffee just before taking a 20 minute nap and the combined impact of the two is miraculously greater than the sum of its parts, making you feel much more refreshed. The reason this works is all down to your brain chemistry. There's this neurotransmitter in your brain called adenosine that is responsible for making you sleepy. It works by attaching it to your neurotransmitters and repressing them to make you feel drowsy. Caffeine works by mimicking the shape of adenosine and attaching to to the transmitters, but speeding them up instead and stopping the real adenosine from latching on, making you feel more awake. Sleep is one of the things that clears adenosine out of your brain (makes sense if you think about it), so the 20 minute nap will clear the way for the caffeine to attach to the maximum number of receptors. Caffeine generally takes 20 minutes to enter your system. Don't worry if you're one of those people who can't fully nap, apparently a sort of "half asleep doze" will work just as well, boosting your alertness and productivity.