Hear plenty of performance podcasters, making it tempting to believe that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes are all at it – and so are musicians, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a job that permits regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep among most adults,” notes a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is what we call recovery napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is prophylactic napping, which involves anticipating sleep loss in the future, such as during graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to the wish: you get an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep expert. “However, if you take a nap as your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that’s often a sign your need for sleep is not where it needs to be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the priority ought to remain a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be long enough to affect your sleep at night, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (depending on when you retire overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most referenced research about napping, experts noted that crew members experienced up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I recommend setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research suggests it is preferable to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you extend it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest using the same protocol one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to maintain your bedroom as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” notes a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to lie down and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive present to start the process initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – for example, when aiming to grab some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it is perfectly fine to employ a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
