Listen to plenty of performance gurus, and it’s simple to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following poor sleep, but a route to enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional athletes are all at it – and so are musicians, UFC champions and media moguls. Yet, when you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the hassle? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” notes an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is known as make-up sleep, which is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you have a chance to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to consider, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be really helpful when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons outside your control – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you nap as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
Therefore that napping shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on what time you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around about the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more stressed above all – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science indicates it’s better to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel groggy when you get up – while if you take it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals recommend employing similar routines one would use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should merely snooze on a couch in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to will,” notes an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and practically instruct yourself to nod off. You need some drive there to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
