Listen to plenty of performance experts, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: rather than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists and media moguls. Yet, when you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap for it to be worth the hassle? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping for many people,” notes an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is termed recovery napping, essentially what happens when you’ve had a lack of sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, such as during overnight shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to the wish: you have a moment to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The primary task to do, then, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for example, if you’re a new parent, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it should be. In such situations, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus should still be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (contingent on the time you retire overnight). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in task performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there regarding the perfect length for sleeping, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do when attempting to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “The science suggests it is preferable to opt for an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you extend it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Perfect Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest using comparable habits one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could just doze on a couch with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the space your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” notes an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination there to start the process in the first place. I can usually nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when options are scarce – for instance, if attempting to squeeze in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
