Tune into enough performance experts, and it’s simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Premier League soccer players are all at it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & business leaders. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science specialist. “The first is termed make-up sleep, that is what you do when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep ahead, for instance when working overnight shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to desire: there is a moment to nap during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes you cannot change – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap as your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that can be an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping ought not to be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and ideally should not occur after about 3pm (depending on when you retire overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study on the subject, space agency scientists discovered that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in task performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “The science indicates it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits you’d use to promote restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains a specialist. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and practically command yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination present to initiate sleep to begin with. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate a moment that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – such as, when aiming to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine to employ sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
