Listen to a few self-improvement experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that a nap is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a route towards improved recall, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League footballers do it regularly – along with concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that permits regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep for many people,” says a professor of sleep science specialist. “The first is known as make-up sleep, which is what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, where you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about wanting: there is a chance to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep expert. “Yet when you take a nap because your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be too extended to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (based on what time you retire in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists found that astronauts showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around concerning the ideal number of minutes, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science indicates it’s better to take a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – whereas if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest adopting comparable habits you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that one could simply nap on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” explains a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and basically command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some drive there to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will