Hear a few self-improvement podcasters, and it’s easy to think that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut towards improved recall, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional athletes do it regularly – as do professional piano players, UFC champions and high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that allows daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the hassle? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” notes an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, that is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to the wish: there is a moment to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap since your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus should still be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that naps ought not to be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (depending on what time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among a prominent study about napping, space agency scientists noted that space travelers had up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep quickly,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Research would say it is preferable to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a full cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose using the same protocol you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that you should just doze on a couch in whatever light happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the space your brain links with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is tougher to lie down and basically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive available to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – for example, if attempting to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
