Listen to enough self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be simple to believe that napping is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a route towards a better memory, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do concert pianists, fighters & high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Does there exist a reliable way to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a professor of sleep and circadian science researcher. “One is termed make-up sleep, essentially what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are anticipating sleep loss ahead, such as during on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply comes down to the wish: you have a moment to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you nap as your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that’s often a sign your need for sleep is not where required. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus ought to remain a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that napping must not be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (depending on the time you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research suggests it's more effective to take an extended nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you take it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists recommend using the same protocol you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that one could just doze in a chair in the existing light is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and basically instruct yourself to nod off. You need a natural inclination present to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if your choices are limited – for instance, when aiming to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
