Hear plenty of performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to think that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following poor sleep, but a path towards improved recall, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – as do musicians, fighters & business leaders. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep to merit the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” says a leading sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, essentially what happens when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, such as during on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to wanting: you have a moment to sleep in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is to examine why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes beyond your control – such as, for a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you’re napping as your sleep at night is unstable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your sleep drive is not where required. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that napping ought not to be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (based on what time you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of guidance out there regarding the perfect length of time, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science suggests it's more effective to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is sufficient to send you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – however, if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more alert. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for specific techniques, advice differs. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze on the sofa in whatever light is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” notes an expert. “Without the urge to sleep, it is tougher to recline and practically instruct yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to look for a moment that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and when your choices are limited – for example, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
