Hear a few self-improvement gurus, making it easy to think that napping is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Elite footballers do it regularly – as do concert pianists, mixed martial artists & media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or a career that allows frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Is there a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three main reasons for taking a nap for many people,” notes an expert circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is known as make-up sleep, which is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep overnight. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit ahead, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: there is an opportunity to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or broken, that’s often an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as it needs to be. In such situations, naps can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on when you retire overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals doze off quickly,” explains a specialist. “There is plenty of guidance out there about the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research indicates it is preferable to take a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect your sleep that night.”
Creating the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Some experts propose using comparable habits you’d use to promote a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to just doze in a chair in the existing light happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. You need some drive present to initiate sleep to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and wake up naturally without an alarm, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to grab 40 winks on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
