Listen to plenty of performance experts, making it easy to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after poor sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists and media moguls. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to justify the kerfuffle? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three key drivers for napping among most adults,” explains a professor of sleep science specialist. “One is termed compensatory napping, which is the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: you have a chance to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to undertake, so, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed due to causes outside your control – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap since your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This means that naps shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you retire at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists noted that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority are asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “You'll find much recommendations regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, however, that can lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research indicates it’s better to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you nap for slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts recommend using similar routines one would use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that you should simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the space your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to force,” says an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists many individuals is to look for an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to grab a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
