Hear plenty of performance experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards a better memory, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players swear by it – and so are musicians, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you lack a special sleep space or employment that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep to merit the effort? Is there a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep for many people,” says a professor of sleep science professor. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, that is the action you take following poor sleep overnight. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, such as if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically boils down to desire: you get a moment to doze in the afternoon, and it feels nice to do it.”
The primary task to undertake, therefore, is to examine your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap because your sleep at night is unstable or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the main goal ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that napping shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on what time you retire at night). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. Among a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “You'll find much recommendations about the optimal amount of time, however, that can make people feel more anxious above all – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies indicates it’s better to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to put you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – however, if you extend it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals recommend employing comparable habits one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination there to bring the sleep on initially. I can usually nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if you have few options – such as, if attempting to grab a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
