Tune into a few self-improvement experts, and you'll be tempting to believe that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a route to improved recall, better spirits and possibly quicker running times. Premier League footballers are all at it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or a career that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to merit the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“There are three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science researcher. “The first is termed recovery napping, which is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, which involves anticipating a sleep deficit coming up, such as when working on night shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to wanting: you get an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “Yet when you nap as your sleep at night feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Use napping as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on what time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that crew members had up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting a timer for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies indicates it's more effective to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest employing comparable habits you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze in a chair in the existing light happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” notes a specialist. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often nap during the day and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
