Tune into a few self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be easy to believe that dozing is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional athletes do it regularly – as do concert pianists, UFC champions and media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Does there exist a dependable method to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” notes a leading sleep science researcher. “The first is termed make-up sleep, that is the action you take when you’ve had a lack of sleep the night before. Another is pre-emptive sleep, where you are anticipating a sleep deficit ahead, such as during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to desire: you have a chance to nap in the afternoon, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The primary task to consider, then, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap because your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep ought not to be too extended to interfere with your sleep at night, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on when you go to bed at night). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research on the subject, experts noted that astronauts experienced up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations about the perfect length of time, yet that often make people feel more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science indicates it is preferable to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals suggest using similar routines you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your bed as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and basically command yourself to nod off. There must be some drive present to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate a time when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
