Tune into a few performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players do it regularly – and so are musicians, mixed martial artists and media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to merit the kerfuffle? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is termed recovery napping, that is the action you take after experiencing poor sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for sleep loss ahead, such as during overnight shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to wanting: you have a moment to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The first thing to do, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for instance, for a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping since your night sleep is unstable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your need for sleep is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
Therefore that naps ought not to be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and best should not occur after about 3pm (depending on what time you go to bed at night). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research would say it's more effective to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – whereas if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” explains an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially command yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure there to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to look for a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – for example, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
