Hear plenty of self-improvement gurus, making it easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a route to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers swear by it – and so are musicians, fighters & business leaders. But if you don't have a room for napping or a job that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you will arise feeling better, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” says an expert circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's termed make-up sleep, that is the action you take when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply is about the wish: you have an opportunity to doze in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted because of factors outside your control – such as, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap because your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that’s often an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that napping must not be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (depending on the time you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers showed up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority doze off quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, however, that can make people feel more stressed above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research would say it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for a long period, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Creating the Right Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting the same protocol one would use to promote restful sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Some advise that you should merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bedroom as the place your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” explains an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and practically command yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive available to bring the sleep on in the first place. I can usually take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
