Listen to enough performance experts, making it tempting to think that napping is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a route to improved recall, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite athletes do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep for many people,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's what we call make-up sleep, which is what happens following insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is preparatory napping, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to wanting: you have an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons you cannot change – for instance, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep expert. “But if you nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as required. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that napping shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you go to bed in the evening). How long is sensible? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members experienced up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more worried above all – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research would say it's more effective to have an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy when you get up – however, if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest adopting comparable habits you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” says a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps most folks is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
