Hear enough self-improvement experts, and you'll be simple to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional footballers swear by it – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists & media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that allows frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to justify the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will get up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” notes an expert sleep science specialist. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is what you do after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, where you are anticipating a sleep deficit coming up, for example if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about desire: you have a chance to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes beyond your control – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on the time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a specialist. “There is plenty of recommendations regarding the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research indicates it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that you should just doze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to command,” says a specialist. “Without any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and wake up naturally alarm-free, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for a time when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – for example, when aiming to grab a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
