Hear a few performance experts, making it easy to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers swear by it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” explains a leading circadian rhythm professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, essentially the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for instance when working overnight shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically is about wanting: you have an opportunity to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The first thing to do, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on when you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most-cited studies on the subject, experts discovered that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted a six-minute long sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much guidance out there concerning the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more anxious above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research indicates it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep that night.”
Establishing an Ideal Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend using similar routines one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that you should merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” notes a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There must be some drive there to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to look for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – such as, when aiming to grab some shut-eye on a train or at the office – it is perfectly fine with bringing sleep aids. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
