Hear a few performance experts, making it tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players are all at it – and so are musicians, mixed martial artists & business leaders. However, if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's known as recovery napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for instance when working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to the wish: there is a chance to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping is disturbed due to causes outside your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on the time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep quickly,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, yet that often make people feel more anxious above all – and the least helpful action you can do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies would say it’s better to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – however, if you extend it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, recommendations vary. Some experts propose employing similar routines you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze on a couch with ambient lighting happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the environment you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” notes a sleep coach. “Without any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – for example, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
