The right nap can feel better than coffee. The wrong one can make you feel like you’ve just been revived from a medically induced coma. Nausea, pounding headaches, brain fog, and a weird sense of time displacement aren’t the dreamy midday break most people hope for.

If you’ve ever woken up from a nap feeling like you woke up in the wrong dimension, you’re not imagining it. Doctors say there are real physiological reasons your body might respond badly to an afternoon snooze—and ways to avoid it.

Why You Feel Like Trash After a Nap

There are a few medical reasons why naps can leave you feeling worse than before:

1. Sleep Inertia: This is the grogginess and confusion that hits when you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle. According to Dr. Waiz Wasey, a Mayo Clinic-trained sleep physici

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