Listen to enough productivity experts, and it’s simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut to improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers are all at it – along with musicians, fighters and business leaders. But if you lack a room for napping or a career that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three main reasons for napping for many people,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, that is what you do following poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep in the future, such as during overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically comes down to the wish: there is a chance to doze in the afternoon, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to think about your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or poor, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This implies that napping ought not to be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts found that space travelers experienced up to a 54% increase in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” notes a sleep coach. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science would say it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to precise methods, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose adopting comparable habits you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that one could simply nap in a chair in the existing light is available – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the place your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to command,” explains a specialist. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some drive present to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to fit in a quick nap while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to employ some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
