Hear plenty of productivity experts, making it tempting to think that napping is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional footballers are all at it – as do musicians, UFC champions & media moguls. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a career that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you really guarantee you will get up feeling better, not worse?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep for many people,” explains a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is termed make-up sleep, that is what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep in the future, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to desire: you get a moment to doze during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping because your nighttime sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not where it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and preferably are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. Among the most referenced research about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted a six-minute long sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around about the perfect length of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed above all – 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 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep inertia, that foggy state upon waking. “Research indicates it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. Some experts recommend adopting the same protocol you use to foster restful sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as is feasible. Some advise that you should merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to will,” says a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive available to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists many individuals is to look for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to fit in 40 winks while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
