Looking for some help with today's NYT Strands? An extra hint and the answers are right here to help you finish the grid and keep your streak intact.

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #494. The official theme for NYT Strands #494 is... "Nap time!" And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Exhaustion". If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens: