Listen to plenty of self-improvement experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that napping is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes do it regularly – as do musicians, mixed martial artists and media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that permits regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the effort? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“There are three main reasons for napping for many people,” notes a leading sleep science researcher. “One is what we call recovery napping, which is what happens after experiencing poor sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, which involves preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, such as when working on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially is about the wish: there is a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The primary task to do, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap because your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research about napping, experts noted that astronauts showed improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing one can do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science would say it’s better to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the professor. “45 minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more alert. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals suggest adopting similar routines you’d use to promote restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to just doze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to will,” says a specialist. “Without any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and practically tell yourself to nod off. You need some sleep pressure available to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to look for an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to grab some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
