Listen to plenty of self-improvement experts, and it’s tempting to believe that napping is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Elite soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to justify the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” explains a leading circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, that is what you do following poor sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, which involves anticipating sleep loss coming up, for instance when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which basically comes down to the wish: there is a moment to sleep during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The initial step to do, then, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – such as, when you are a new parent, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you nap since your nighttime sleep is unstable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the priority should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep must not be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on the time you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this included an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations regarding the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing one can do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science would say it’s better to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals suggest employing comparable habits one would use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to just doze on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the place your brain links with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to recline and essentially instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on to begin with. I can usually nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – for instance, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
