Eli5: why do we sometimes wake up in a really bad mood after a mid-afternoon nap?

Question

This is something that happens to me from time to time since I was a kid.

I would take a nap after lunch, on a day like today. Then sometimes wake up feeling disoriented and depressed. Other times I’d feel fine.

What causes this specifically and why does it only happen sometimes?

In: 183

Answer 1

This use to happen to me until lately i discovered that when you nap you should sleep for approximately 1 hr 30 min, this is approximately one cycle of rem and is much easier to wake up from then if you were to wake up in the middle of a rem cycle(45min nap approx), if you wake up in the middle of a rem cycle you’ll find its really hard to wake up have heavy eyes and get moody and takes the body an hour just to wake up.