Hear plenty of self-improvement gurus, making it simple to think that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Professional footballers do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, fighters and business leaders. But if you lack a room for napping or a career that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to merit the hassle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for napping among most adults,” says an expert circadian rhythm specialist. “One is what we call make-up sleep, that is the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for example during graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to wanting: you get a moment to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The initial step to consider, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap as your night sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be too extended to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on the time you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists found that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the ideal number of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious above all – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state upon waking. “Studies would say it’s better to have an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “45 minutes is long enough to send you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, recommendations vary. A few professionals suggest adopting the same protocol you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” explains a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to look for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should options are scarce – for instance, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
