Hear plenty of performance experts, making it simple to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and perhaps quicker running times. Elite soccer players do it regularly – along with concert pianists, fighters & business leaders. However, if you don't have a room for napping or a job that permits regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for napping for many people,” notes a leading circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, which is what happens when you’ve had a lack of sleep the previous night. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for example when working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply is about desire: you get an opportunity to nap during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, for a new parent, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you’re napping since your sleep at night is unstable or unreliable, that can be an indicator your sleep drive is not where it needs to be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the focus should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that napping shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research about napping, experts found that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a specialist. “There is plenty of recommendations regarding the perfect length of time, however, that can cause people to feel more anxious above all – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies indicates it is preferable to take an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, advice differs. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that one could merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the space you associate with proper sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to command,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often nap in full light and awaken on my own alarm-free, however, what assists many individuals is to look for a moment that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – for example, when aiming to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
