Tune into enough performance podcasters, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route to improved recall, improved mood and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players swear by it – and so are musicians, fighters and high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a special sleep space or employment that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Is there a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a leading sleep science professor. “One is termed make-up sleep, essentially what you do after experiencing poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are anticipating insufficient sleep ahead, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to the wish: there is a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The primary task to do, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed because of factors outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you nap as your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
Therefore that daytime sleep ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on what time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study about napping, experts noted that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people are asleep in under ten minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the perfect length of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep inertia, that foggy state upon waking. “The science indicates it’s better to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend adopting the same protocol you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Some advise that you should merely snooze on a couch with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and basically instruct yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often nap during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, though, what aids most folks is to wait for a time that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
