Tune into a few productivity podcasters, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid after poor sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, UFC champions & media moguls. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“Experts note three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” says an expert circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are anticipating sleep loss coming up, such as when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically comes down to wanting: you get a moment to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, when you are caring for an infant, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping since your night sleep is unstable or unreliable, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not where required. In such situations, napping can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the main goal ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on when you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There is plenty of guidance out there concerning the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the worst thing one can do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “Studies indicates it’s better to have an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – while if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to finish a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals suggest using similar routines one would use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze on a couch with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” notes an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination present to start the process initially. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists most folks is to look for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when your choices are limited – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
