We live in an era where almost every ambitious person is focused on “productivity” and “getting things done.” This is all well and good: there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to maximize your output—whether it is in your personal or professional life. Many of the world’s most successful people—regardless of the industry—try to maximize their output in a minimal amount of time.

But having said that, this conversation about productivity is often skewed toward hyperactivity. We feel like we need to be running around at one million miles per hour in order to accomplish as much as we can. For the super ambitious, it is easy to criticize or look down on those who don’t adopt the same behavior or mentality.

The reality, however, is quite nuanced. By adopting this attitude of productivity, we can run ourselves ragged—possibly even developing burnout.

While some may think that napping leads to less productivity, the reality is quite the opposite. There are several key benefits to napping that can make you more productive and happier. From improving memory and creativity to lowering stress, napping can provide a wealth of benefits to your health.

So if you are feeling the scorn of colleagues due to your napping preferences, there’s no need to feel inadequate. In fact, a nap may be just the thing to help you accomplish your goals.

Productivity and Napping: The Basics

If you are in the pro-nap camp, you may find it encouraging that you aren’t alone. In fact, some studies have shown that many Americans are already taking naps on the job. According to one unofficial study by the director of Boston University’s Center for Psychological Rehabilitation, a whopping 70 percent of 1,000 respondents admitted to sleeping on the job.

While this number may be more or less than you expected, the fact remains that napping relieves sleep deprivation (which is increasingly common these days) and, yes, increases performance and productivity. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that approximately one-third of American adults are not getting enough sleep. While we should be averaging about seven to nine hours every night, most obtain less than six hours. This accumulation of sleep debt can make it harder to concentrate and harder to perform at our best levels.

Because of this, it’s no wonder that chipping away at some of your sleep debt is going to lead to increases in performance. There are many studies that have studied the link between sleep and performance, but one of the most interesting comes from studying sleep-deprived pilots. One of the main conclusions from the study was that pilots who were allowed to take a short nap (between 40 and 45 minutes) improved their alertness by 54 percent and their performance by 34 percent.

In fact, one study found that napping may be just the cure if you are struggling to solve a tricky problem. In 2009, several researchers decided to test the impact of napping on creativity. The researchers made volunteers take an SAT-esque word analogy test before and after a nap. The researchers concluded that napping significantly improved creative problem-solving. However, before you start embracing napping to be creative, you should be aware of a key caveat. Subjects in this study only scored higher than the analogy test if the test questions were distributed before the nap itself. Once the test was distributed, however, nappers discovered that sleeping on a difficult problem may actually be helpful.

So clearly, napping can help us if we feel stuck on a problem or task at work. Along with this tangible benefit, napping can also help us build up frustration tolerance in our lives. A 2015 study published in Personality and Individual Differences found that individuals waking up after an hour-long nap were less impulsive and had a greater tolerance for frustration compared to a similar group who watched a documentary instead of napping. According to the lead researcher, sleeping isn’t just about the passage of time—it also provides us with more distance from an emotional event.

Along with frustration tolerance, napping can even help you improve your memory. In fact, according to one recent study by researchers at the University of Dusseldorf, falling asleep for only six minutes is enough to significantly enhance memory. The study is revealing in that six minutes is the shortest period of sleep that has been found to affect mental functioning.

Clearly, napping provides a wealth of performance benefits—regardless of your age. Researchers have been studying napping for decades and have discovered some promising data. Consequently, if you encounter a skeptical colleague or friend, you may want to present them with these studies. While the stigma against napping still remains, all of us can do our part to shift the collective opinion.

Ideal Napping Conditions

Whether you nap at work or at home on the weekends, you undoubtedly want to create the best possible conditions for your nap. Thankfully, there are a few helpful things that you can do. First, it helps to block out a specific time and duration for your nap. If you can do it at work, try to schedule a regular time where your energy is lowest (say the afternoon slump of 2:00 or 2:30). As for duration, this will likely depend on your own individual circumstances. While you may be able to obtain the benefits of napping in as little as six minutes, you may want to aim for a longer nap in order to obtain all of the positive effects.

Along with time and duration, ensure that you are napping in a comfortable location, whether that means you are using blackout curtains, a comfortable pillow, and/or something else. Preferably, you have a particular, nap-friendly location that you can use every day. If you don’t, try to find a place that has minimal noise. The ultimate goal is to find a place where you won’t be interrupted and where you can get uninterrupted sleep.

And before you lose drift off into sleep, embrace deep breathing techniques. This may remind you of mediation, but the basic principle is to deliberately relax as you are preparing to sleep. While you may not be able to eliminate every thought going through your mind, taking several, consecutive deep breaths will make it much easier to fall asleep.

Embrace the Nap Revolution

Contrary to popular opinion, napping is a terrific way to become happier, more energetic, and, yes, more productive. To put it simply, you are sacrificing your productivity for several minutes in order to be much more productive for longer periods of time. Many people cannot get over the mental roadblock of feeling “unproductive” by totally disconnecting from technology and from others.

We encourage you to not only overcome this roadblock yourself, but to convince your colleagues and managers as well. While it may take some work to fully persuade these individuals, the end result will absolutely be worth it.