Tune into plenty of performance experts, and you'll be simple to believe that napping is a superpower: rather than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a path towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe improved athletic performance. Premier League athletes do it regularly – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & business leaders. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you will arise feeling better, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for daytime sleep among most adults,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is known as recovery napping, that is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example during overnight shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about the wish: you get a moment to sleep in the afternoon, and it feels nice to nap.”
The primary task to undertake, then, is to examine why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for instance, for a new parent, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus must always be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and preferably are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on the time you retire at night). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists noted that space travelers experienced up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you wake. “Research suggests it’s better to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – while if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence how you sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Right Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend adopting the same protocol you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as you can manage. Some advise that one could merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to lie down and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
