Tune into enough self-improvement gurus, making it easy to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Professional athletes are all at it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists and business leaders. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or a career that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a professor of sleep science specialist. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, that is what you do following poor sleep overnight. Another is preparatory napping, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to the wish: there is an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
Therefore that napping must not be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (depending on what time you go to bed overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around about the optimal amount of time, yet that often make people feel more worried above all – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to nod off is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Research suggests it is preferable to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space
Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals suggest employing the same protocol one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that you should merely snooze on a couch with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” says an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to recline and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often nap in full light and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists most folks is to look for a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to squeeze in 40 winks during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
