Ever wondered why you always experience a slump after lunch?
It turns out that some of us are actually born to nap, while others don't need too much sleep.
According to research, there's a reason why you need to snooze more than your partner.
The study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) looked into sleep as researchers received information from 452,633 people.
Dr Hassan Dashti said: "Napping is somewhat controversial.
"It was important to try to disentangle the biological pathways that contribute to why we nap."
Participants were asked how often they napped during the day out of three choices – never/rarely, sometimes or usually.
Some of the group wore an activity monitor accelerometer to make sure they reported their snoozing accurately.
The data showed 123 regions in the human genome associated with napping, most of which had been linked with sleepy people.
Scientists also found three potential napping mechanisms.
The first two – disrupted sleep and early morning awakening – reflected people who napped because they didn't have enough sleep.
But the others just needed more sleep, known as sleep propensity.
Dr Dashti said: "This tells us that daytime napping is biologically driven and not just an environmental or behavioural choice."
Some of the genetic traits associated with napping were linked to other health concerns, including high blood pressure.
Co-author graduate student Iyas Daghlas from Harvard Medical School added: "This pathway is known to be involved in rare sleep disorders like narcolepsy.
"But our findings show that smaller perturbations in the pathway can explain why some people nap more than others."
The study showed that a good arvo nap is a great way to revitalise yourself after a disrupted night of sleep or getting up too early in the morning.
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