Hear enough self-improvement podcasters, and it’s easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes do it regularly – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that encourages regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the effort? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science professor. “One is known as compensatory napping, essentially what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, such as during overnight shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to wanting: there is an opportunity to doze during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal ought to remain a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep must not be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on when you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. From a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “The science would say it's more effective to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose adopting the same protocol you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the environment your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” says an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to start the process initially. I can usually take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – such as, if attempting to fit in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
