Sleep vs. Nap — What's the Difference?

Sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind and body, characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness, with sleep displaying different, active brain patterns.

A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours.

A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming.

A brief sleep, often during the day.

A period of this form of rest.

A soft or fuzzy surface on fabric or leather.

A state of inactivity resembling or suggesting sleep; unconsciousness, dormancy, hibernation, or death.

A trick-taking card game in which the players are each dealt five cards and everyone bids the number of tricks they intend to take, with the highest bidder deciding the trump.

A state in which a computer shuts off or reduces power to its peripherals (such as the display or memory) in order to save energy during periods of inactivity.

The first bid of five tricks in this game, the maximum number in a hand. Also called napoleon.

(Botany) The folding together of leaflets or petals at night or in the absence of light.

See napoleon1.

A crust of dried tears or mucus normally forming around the inner rim of the eye during sleep.

To sleep for a brief period, often during the day; doze.

To be in the state of sleep or to fall asleep.

To be unaware of imminent danger or trouble; be off guard

To be in a condition resembling sleep.

To form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather).

To pass or get rid of by sleeping

To pour or put a sauce or gravy over (a cooked dish) in a thin, even layer

To provide sleeping accommodations for

A short period of sleep, especially one during the day.

(intransitive) To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.

A soft or fuzzy surface, generally on fabric or leather.

(transitive) To be slumbering in (a state).

The common direction, on some kinds of fabric, of the hairs making up the pile.

To achieve or make happen by manner of sleep.

(British) A type of bet in British horse racing, based on the experts' best tips.

To have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).

A card game in which players take tricks; properly Napoleon.

(idiomatic) To earn by sexual favors.

A bid to take five tricks in the card game Napoleon.

(transitive) To accommodate in beds.

A cup, bowl.

(intransitive) To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.

To have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day.

(intransitive) To be dead; to lie in the grave.

(figuratively) To be off one's guard.

(intransitive) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.

To form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather).

To wait for a period of time without performing any action.

(obsolete) To grab; to nab.

To place into a state of hibernation.

(cooking) To cover (something) with a sauce. usually in the passive

To spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.

To have a short sleep; to be drowsy; to doze.

To cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.

To be in a careless, secure state; to be unprepared; as, to be caught napping.

(uncountable) The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.

To raise, or put, a nap on.

An act or instance of sleeping.

A short sleep; a doze; a siesta.

A night.

Woolly or villous surface of felt, cloth, plants, etc.; an external covering of down, of short fine hairs or fibers forming part of the substance of anything, and lying smoothly in one direction; the pile; as, the nap of cotton flannel or of broadcloth.

(uncountable) Rheum, crusty or gummy discharge found in the corner of the eyes after waking, whether real or a figurative objectification of sleep (in the sense of reduced consciousness).

The loops which are cut to make the pile, in velvet.

A state of plants, usually at night, when their leaflets approach each other and the flowers close and droop, or are covered by the folded leaves.

Same as Napoleon, 1, below.

The hibernation of animals.

A period of time spent sleeping;

To take rest by a suspension of the voluntary exercise of the powers of the body and mind, and an apathy of the organs of sense; to slumber.

A soft or fuzzy surface texture

To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.

The yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave;

To be dead; to lie in the grave.

A short sleep (usually not in bed)

To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant; as, a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps.

A card game similar to whist; usually played for stakes

To be slumbering in; - followed by a cognate object; as, to sleep a dreamless sleep.

Take a siesta;

To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to lodge.

A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, as well as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more or less unconscious state.

A natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended;

A torpid state resembling sleep

A period of time spent sleeping;

Euphemisms for death (based on an analogy between lying in a bed and in a tomb);

Be asleep

Be able to accommodate for sleeping;