Tune into enough self-improvement gurus, and you'll be tempting to think that a nap is a superpower: rather than a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards a better memory, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, fighters & business leaders. However, if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or employment that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“There are three main reasons for daytime sleep among most adults,” says a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is known as compensatory napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, which involves preparing for insufficient sleep ahead, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to desire: there is a chance to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons outside your control – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or if you are healing after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you’re napping because your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This means that napping shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you go to bed at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists discovered that astronauts had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies indicates it's more effective to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose employing the same protocol one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” says an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure available to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to look for a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to grab 40 winks on a train or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
