Tune into a few self-improvement podcasters, making it simple to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to a better memory, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Premier League athletes are all at it – as do professional piano players, fighters and high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “One is known as compensatory napping, that is the action you take following poor sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about the wish: you have an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to do, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons outside your control – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap because your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that’s often an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep must not be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you go to bed in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this counted a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations about the ideal number of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research suggests it is preferable to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – however, if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting
When it comes to precise methods, recommendations vary. Some experts propose adopting comparable habits you’d use to foster restful sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Some advise that you should just doze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your bedroom as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” says an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and essentially instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive available to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to grab 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I advise that they don’t get used to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
