Listen to a few performance podcasters, making it simple to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster after restless night, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players swear by it – and so are musicians, fighters and media moguls. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that permits frequent naps, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the effort? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping for many people,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science researcher. “The first is termed compensatory napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, where you are pre-empting sleep loss coming up, such as if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to wanting: you get an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The primary task to undertake, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted for reasons outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that napping shouldn’t be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you retire in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around about the perfect length of minutes, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research indicates it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a full cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you’re sleeping for a long period, it may impact the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals recommend employing the same protocol you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that you should just doze on a couch in the existing light is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the space you associate with proper sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to command,” says an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive available to start the process initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to look for a moment when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
