Listen to a few productivity experts, and you'll be tempting to think that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to a better memory, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Professional soccer players are all at it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists and media moguls. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” says a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “One is known as make-up sleep, which is the action you take after experiencing poor sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves preparing for insufficient sleep ahead, for instance when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply boils down to desire: there is a chance to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – for example, for a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you nap as your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus should still be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
Therefore that naps ought not to be too extended to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members had up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Research would say it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Right Sleep Space
Regarding specific techniques, recommendations vary. A few professionals recommend using the same protocol you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to just doze in a chair in the existing light is present – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids most folks is to wait for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when you have few options – for instance, if attempting to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
