Tune into a few performance experts, and you'll be simple to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a route towards improved recall, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Premier League athletes swear by it – as do professional piano players, fighters & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that permits daytime sleep, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to merit the effort? Is there a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” notes a professor of sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, that is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, for instance when working on night shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which basically boils down to wanting: you have a chance to sleep during the day, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The primary task to undertake, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Napping can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – for example, for caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research about napping, researchers at Nasa found that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the optimal amount of time, however, that can make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science suggests it's more effective to opt for a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – while if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose employing similar routines you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Some advise that one could just doze in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to force,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and practically command yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination there to initiate sleep initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up alarm-free, but what helps most folks is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will