Listen to enough productivity experts, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players are all at it – as do musicians, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will arise feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” notes an expert sleep and circadian science researcher. “The first is known as make-up sleep, that is what happens following poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit ahead, for instance when working on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to the wish: you get an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed due to causes beyond your control – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap as your sleep at night is unstable or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. In such situations, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This means that naps ought not to be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (based on when you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of a prominent study on the subject, experts noted that astronauts showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – most people are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the ideal number for sleeping, however, that can cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to nod off is worry about it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies would say it's more effective to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep that night.”
Creating the Right Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to will,” says an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure present to start the process in the first place. I can usually take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – for instance, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
