Tune into enough performance podcasters, making it easy to think that a nap is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after restless night, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Premier League soccer players swear by it – as do professional piano players, UFC champions and business leaders. But if you lack a room for napping or a job that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“There are three key drivers for napping among most adults,” notes an expert sleep science professor. “One is what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do following poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance during on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to desire: you get a moment to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors you cannot change – for instance, for caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap as your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not at the level it should be. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the focus must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and preferably shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, experts discovered that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there concerning the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “The science suggests it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you nap for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists recommend using the same protocol you’d use to foster a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that one could simply nap in a chair in the existing light is present – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some drive there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to look for a time where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it is perfectly fine to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
