Tune into plenty of performance podcasters, making it simple to convince yourself that dozing is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid after restless night, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes swear by it – and so are professional piano players, fighters & high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” says an expert sleep science researcher. “The first is termed make-up sleep, essentially the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss ahead, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you get an opportunity to sleep during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, therefore, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons outside your control – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep expert. “Yet when you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be an indicator your sleep drive is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there regarding the ideal number of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies would say it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. But if you nap for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists recommend using the same protocol you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap on the sofa in the existing light is present – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” notes a specialist. “Without any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to initiate sleep to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps most folks is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for instance, when aiming to grab a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
