Hear a few self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be easy to think that dozing is a superpower: rather than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a job that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, that is what you do when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit ahead, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about desire: there is an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap as your nighttime sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not as strong as it needs to be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
Therefore that napping ought not to be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (based on what time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Advice differs. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists found that crew members had improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the ideal number of time, yet that often make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “The science would say it’s better to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Perfect Nap Environment
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend employing the same protocol one would use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and minimal light as is feasible. Some advise that you should simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the place your brain links with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to nod off. You need some drive there to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, though, what aids most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing sleep aids. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
