Listen to enough self-improvement podcasters, making it tempting to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster after restless night, but a route to enhanced cognition, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, fighters and media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the hassle? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's known as recovery napping, that is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, when you are anticipating sleep loss in the future, for instance during on night shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about wanting: you have a chance to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to think about why you want to nap. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors outside your control – for instance, for a new parent, or you’re recovering from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep expert. “But if you nap since your night sleep is unstable or broken, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that napping shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on when you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Advice differs. Among the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists noted that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around concerning the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the worst thing one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Research suggests it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – however, if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts recommend employing comparable habits you use to foster restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze in a chair in whatever light is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to command,” says a specialist. “Without the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to get comfortable and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive present to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when you have few options – for example, if attempting to grab a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
